Roman Erlikh is a professional woodworker with over 20 years’ experience. Before opening his antique furniture fabrication and restoration facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Roman underwent extensive apprenticeships in a variety of furniture fabricating facilities throughout New York. His first furniture collections were inspired by traditional Art Deco and Biedermeier styles interpreted through a modern lifestyle demands.
After completing digital fabrication class in NYC College of Technology, Roman upgraded the studio with 3D modeling and a custom built CNC router. Stepping away from merely utilitarian view of everyday objects, his recent collections are filled with meaningful textual context while incorporating traditional and modern woodworking techniques. Roman is using practical function as a common denominator to create emotionally charged art objects, blurring the boundary between art and function. While appreciating possibilities of ordinary materials, Roman is developing new mixed media multilayered composite varnishes and utilizes decorative gilding and mica veneer to actively engage ambient light, giving an additional aspect to relation of his objects to their environment.
The decision to work in custom format was based on environmental concerns and opposition to culture of mass production and pure consumerism. The choice of materials was heavily influenced by sustainability and environmental concerns. All objects are made locally in the Brooklyn Navy Yard workshop. Elimination of storage and transportation needs for mass-produced furniture in lieu of creating a custom made objects on demand allows us to reduce waste of materials and energy.