Michael Hurwitz

Born in Miami, Florida, Michael Hurwitz attended Massachusetts College of Art from 1974 to 1975 and earned a B.F.A. degree at Boston University, where he studied with Jere Osgood and Daniel Jackson in the program in artisanry. Since 1985, he has taught in the woodworking department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Awarded an artist-in-residence fellowship to the Dominican Republic in 1985, Hurwitz developed an interest in primitive art. A six-month stay in Japan in 1988 stimulated his interest in that country's art and architecture, which has also influenced his work. Among contemporary furniture artists, Hurwitz is in the forefront of investigating the possibilities of giving new wood an elusive character by manipulating the surface texture and color. Hurwitz is the recipient of four National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.

Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998)