By Jim Rose
Located in Chicago, IL
This Coffee Table occupies a particularly intimate place within Jim Rose’s legacy, offering a clear view into how his principles operated at the most personal level. Made for his own apartment and kept in his private collection until his death, the piece reflects Rose’s belief that furniture should be lived with daily—tested, trusted, and allowed to age alongside its maker.
Formally, the table is pared down to essentials: a broad, planar top supported by cylindrical legs, all executed in hot-rolled and found painted steel. The restraint of the design underscores Rose’s commitment to clarity and proportion, while the visible wear and remnants of paint on the legs preserve the material’s prior life. As in much of his work, these traces are not concealed or refined away; they are integral to the piece’s character, allowing time, labor, and use to remain legible.
Unlike his more overtly referential quilt cabinets, this table speaks quietly, embodying Rose’s ethos through use rather than symbolism. Its generous scale and grounded stance suggest durability and communal presence—furniture meant to support everyday rituals rather than command attention. That Rose chose to keep this piece for himself reinforces its significance as a personal benchmark for what he valued most: honesty of material, usefulness, and a sense of calm permanence.
Within his broader body of work, this coffee table stands as a testament to Rose’s integrity as a maker. It demonstrates that his philosophy was not reserved for commissions or exhibitions, but applied equally to the objects he lived with. In that sense, the table becomes a subtle self-portrait—an object shaped by restraint, patience, and quiet confidence, embodying the values that define Jim Rose’s enduring legacy.
Jim Rose
Coffee Table
hot roll and found painted steel
18h x 34w x 60d in
45.72h x 86.36w x 152.40d cm
JR0257
Bio
Jim Rose (1966–2023) was an American furniture maker, artist, and metalworker whose work occupied a singular position between studio craft, sculpture, and functional design. Born in Beech Grove, Indiana, Rose trained as a sculptor, earning his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1988 after a brief period of study at Bard College. This sculptural foundation shaped his approach to furniture, in which proportion, structure, and surface were treated with the same rigor as utility, and everyday objects were understood as vehicles for aesthetic and ethical values.
Working primarily in steel—often reclaimed or salvaged—Rose challenged conventional expectations of furniture materials. Through brushing, waxing, and patination, he developed surfaces that softened steel’s industrial associations, imparting warmth, depth, and a sense of age. His work drew on diverse historical and cultural sources, including Shaker furniture, Asian cabinetry, and the quilts of Gee’s Bend, yet these influences were never literal. Instead, Rose translated their underlying principles—clarity, restraint, repetition, and balance—into a contemporary language grounded in material honesty.
Based for much of his career in Wisconsin, Rose was closely associated with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, including participation in its Arts/Industry residency program. His furniture and objects were widely exhibited in galleries and design fairs across the United States and featured in publications such as American Craft and Architectural Digest. His work entered both private and institutional collections during his lifetime, reflecting a sustained engagement with collectors, curators, and designers.
Rose’s furniture is distinguished by its emphasis on durability, adaptability, and use. Cabinets, chairs, benches, and tables were engineered for longevity and daily life, incorporating practical features such as steel drawer glides, modular construction, and discreet accommodations for modern technology. This functional intelligence was inseparable from his broader philosophy: furniture, for Rose, was a form of quiet service, meant to support human activity while carrying forward the history embedded in its materials.
Jim Rose’s work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Following his death in 2023, his legacy endures through a body of work that demonstrates how contemporary furniture can be both materially rigorous and deeply humane—objects shaped by patience, integrity, and an enduring respect for use.
Education:
1989 B.F.A., Sculpture, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
1988 Student at Large, Welding Technology, Triton College, Chicago, IL
1985 Undergraduate Photography Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Awards:
2008 Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship Award, Madison, WI
2005 Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
2003 Grant Recipient for Shaker Interpretations in Cast Iron, PA Arts Assoc / WI Arts Board
2003 Arts/Industry Residency Program for Visual Artists, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Solo Exhibitions:
2023 CODA Final Show, Gallery VICTOR, Chicago, IL
2017 New Work, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
2012 Simply Steel, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
2007 Variation, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2003 New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2001 Shaker in Steel / New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Shaker in Steel / New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
1999 Hands and Heart to Steel III, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
National Exhibitions:
2023 Intersect Palm Springs, Gallery VICTOR, Palm Springs Convention Center, CA
2017 - 2018 SOFA Chicago – Gallery Victor Armendariz
1995 - 2016 SOFA Chicago, New York, Palm Beach - Ann Nathan Gallery
2011 - 2002 Art Chicago - Ann Nathan Gallery
Group Exhibitions:
2022 Wunderkammer: Victor's Cabinet of Curiosities – 5th Anniversary Special Exhibit, Gallery VICTOR, Chicago, IL
2017 Coming Attractions: Inaugural Exhibition, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
2017 Living with Art: The Newman Collection, 108 Contemporary, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2016 Form Follows Function: The Intersection of Art and Craft, The Hardy Gallery, Ephraim, Wi
2015 NEO, Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
2015 ICFF, Furniture Society, Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY
2013 Vahki Revisited, The Enduring Spirit of a Craft Collection” Mesa Contemporary Arts,
Mesa, AZ
2013 Fearless Furniture, Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, Indianapolis, IN
2013 Inaugural Exhibition, Museum Wisconsin of Art, West Bend, WI
2012 Sitting Pretty: Furniture from RAM’s Collection, Racine Art Museum, WI
2011 Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI
2010 Living with Art, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2009 Summer in Wisconsin, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
2009 High Honors, James Watrous Gallery, Madison, WI
2008 Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, Museum of Art and Design, NY
2007 Transformation 5: Contemporary Works in Found Materials, Art Association, Jackson, WY
2007 Transformation 5: Contemporary Works in Found Materials, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX (traveling exhibition)
2006 Show us Your Drawers, Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN
2006 Marriage of the Minds...
Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
