Artist & Educator

Alex Jarus is an artist and educator who utilizes the language of traditional craft techniques to create sculptural and furniture forms that explore the patchworks of their queer & non-binary identity. Although their dominant area of craft is woodworking, they consider themselves a curator of many techniques and mediums. Even as a contemporary craftspersons, their intentional efforts to abstain from any particular visual epoch, provides a level of escapism into a world of speculative fiction.

They received their MFA in Furniture Design at Rochester Institute of Technology & BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Design & Production with a concentration in Stage Properties.

Awards - Exhibitions - Press

Orbital Dynamics on display at the 2022 RIT Art Out Exhibition

Artist Interview - “MFA student finds their artistic voice in furniture design” by Jenna Warren (August 2022)

Artist Interview

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2022 RIT Graduate Visual Exhibition - Awarded: Certification of Excellence (Visual Exhibition)

Spheroid Stool Exhibited at the 67th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition

Storytelling without words: Props bring “Spring Awakening” to life

A documentation of UNCSA’s 2020 production of Spring Awakening. This video serves as the promo video for UNCSA’s Stage Properties undergrad and grad programs. As the Lead Artisan for the production, I played a major role in both the production and documentary.

Instagram

A week goes by so quickly when you’re surrounded by a driven and talented collection of artist, craftspeople, and makers! . Thank you to all, especially to the master carver himself, Fredy Huaman Mallqui, and our devoted intern, Cleo, for crea
Eye of Aspen . Among a forest of quaking leaves The eyes of the aspen guard a door to the unseen . . This sculptural object was designed and completely hand carved as part of Fredy Huaman Mallqui’s “Relief and Detail Carving” class
Indeterminate Artifact . Reminiscent of an alien artifact yet entirely natural. Carvings placed by hand representing an unknown foreign mechanism embedded upon a smooth decaying sphere. All in all, a form so familiar yet indeterminately otherworldly.
Spatial Stool . Existing between elevation and grounding the stool elevates the interactor from a direct line of contact to the ground. By displacing the central pillar into three panels and then bisecting each panel in two separate legs the interact
Lux 02: Beacon . . Basking in the warm glow of the “artificial” neon this lamp acts as a beacon in moments of momentous change. With mechanical tactile elements akin to early atomic apparatuses this lamp produces an old world quality of w
To Perch Upon The Void . . A perch to ponder what lives beyond the cosmic horizon. Leaving the discernible behind this piece of seating grounds itself in the unknown. To rest upon it is to lean upon the void and experience the indiscernible chaos of
meet me by the fire . Made from glass, copper, oak, and light. To act as a meeting point for travelers, a safe haven below the stars and among the warmth of the light. . . contained with a moment. glass bound in bands of copper. hung within a valley
To peer into forms being finished . . . #woodworking #finishingtouches #ritsac #ritcad #ritfurnituredesign #greenwood #greenwoodworking #artist #linseedoil
The melding of molten glass and metal into absurd and functional forms . . . . Over the course of the past couple of months I’ve had the opportunity to explore glass as a medium. All of this culminating in a final piece for which I have chosen
Big things are happening… . . . Special thanks to Naomi [ @gnomesinreddesign ] and Mitch [ @mgoldst ] for helping me get this monstrosity up onto the lathe . . #woodworking #greenwood #greenwoodworking #greenwoodturning #greenturning #ritsac #