Jonathan Nesci (b. 1981, Chicago, Illinois) is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Chicagoland area. His practice encompasses fine art, sculpture, and furniture, positioned at the intersection of art, architecture, design, and material culture. Working in close collaboration with a guild of high-craft makers throughout the Midwest, Nesci employs both traditional and digital fabrication processes to realize work across a wide range of materials and finishes.

Nesci's made-to-order works are placed through partnerships with interior designers, architects, landscape architects, creative directors, museum curators and art consultants, allowing each project to respond precisely to its architectural and cultural context.

In 2009, Nesci received a Design Award from Wallpaper magazine for the Library Bookcase, which entered the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2015. His General Desk, presented in The New, the inaugural exhibition at Volume Gallery in 2010, was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago.

Nesci's work has been presented through an international network of galleries, design spaces, and fairs, including Casati Gallery, Wright, Volume Gallery, Morlen Sinoway, Patrick Parrish Gallery, Matter, Fisher Parrish Gallery, Totokaelo, The Line, Tile Blush, Nina Johnson, CO Collection, Field, Oliver Gustav, Plus Design Gallery, and Galerie Vivid, as well as platforms such as 1stDibs and Artsy, and fairs including Design Miami, PAD Paris, PAD London, Collective Design, and Salone del Mobile. Nesci now works exclusively through direct collaboration with the creative trades, placing work into private art collections.

on form

I am driven by form.

Not decoration. Not trend. Form.

My work begins with proportion and discipline. Geometry is not a style choice for me; it is a framework for thinking. I am drawn to systems like the Golden Ratio because they create continuity across time. They allow a body of work to evolve without losing its thread. Structure gives me freedom. Rigor gives me clarity.

I am fascinated by the made world. I want to understand how things are conceived, engineered, fabricated, and finished. I look at objects and see decisions. I see problem solving. I see human effort embedded in material. That curiosity is constant. It shapes how I design and how I collaborate.

Material matters. I am drawn to materials that allow precision and control. Aluminum, for example, offers a level of exactness that aligns with how I think. I am not interested in forcing material to perform against its nature. I design around what is possible, often beginning with the capabilities of local fabricators and building from there. Constraints are not limitations. They are catalysts.

I do not chase minimalism. I remove complication. What may appear simple is the result of iteration, refinement, and countless small decisions. Ease is earned. A piece is finished when it feels resolved, not when it is explained.

Function is one line I recognize clearly. When something serves a purpose, it carries certain responsibilities of scale and proportion. When it does not, it enters the territory of sculpture and can operate more freely. I work comfortably across that spectrum. I am not interested in choosing between design, art, architecture, or fabrication. I work at the edge of those disciplines because that is where new ideas surface.

I am self-taught. That has given me a particular kind of independence. I do not feel obligated to over-narrate my work. If a piece resonates, that is enough. Immediate connection matters to me. I believe form can speak before explanation.

At the same time, my work is not detached from emotion. Each piece marks a moment in my life. I can look back at a design and remember who I was when I made it, what I was thinking, what I was wrestling with. The objects become characters in an ongoing story. I hope that over time they also become markers in the lives of the people who live with them. Like music, an object can anchor memory.

Collaboration is essential. I look for clearly defined roles and for people who are excellent at what they do. Engineering, machining, finishing, installation. I respect mastery. The best outcomes happen when each person is fully accountable to their part. The result is stronger than any single contributor.

Nature is important to me in a different way. The built world activates my mind. Nature quiets it. That balance keeps me steady. Curiosity pushes me forward. Stillness keeps me grounded.

My early show was titled The New. That title still reflects something fundamental in me. I am always looking forward. The medium may shift. The scale may change. The discipline remains. Whether I am designing a table, a sculpture, or eventually architecture, it is the same brain at work. The same pursuit of proportion, clarity, and integrity.

I am contributing to material culture. Not in the sense of producing objects for consumption, but in the sense of adding to the physical environment we inhabit. The things we live with shape us. They influence how we move, gather, focus, and rest. I take that responsibility seriously.

My work is about precision without sterility. Rigor without rigidity. Structure without confinement. It is about building objects that feel inevitable in their space, grounded in proportion, refined through collaboration, and capable of lasting far beyond the moment in which they were made.

At its core, what drives me is connection.

Connection to material.
Connection to process.
Connection to collaborators.
Connection to place.
Connection to the people who live with the work.

Everything else is secondary.

I am committed to evolving without disowning where I began. I still believe in the work I made in 2007. I believe in the work I am making now. Each piece is part of a continuous trajectory.

The goal is not to produce more. The goal is to refine further.

To build with discipline.
To create with conviction.
To remain curious.
And to keep pushing form until it feels fully present.

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