Norman Teague
{{Short description|American designer and educator}}
{{Improve images|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Norman Teague
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1968}}
| education = Columbia College Chicago,
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
| occupation = Social practice artist, designer, furniture maker, sculptor, educator
}}
Norman Teague (born 1968) is an American social practice artist, designer,{{Cite web|last=Bertoli|first=Rosa|date=2021-09-14|title=Norman Teague: 'design history needs to reinvent itself'|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/design/norman-teague-design-profile|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Wallpaper* Magazine}} furniture maker,{{Cite web|last=Goodman|first=Wendy|date=2020-11-20|title=Norman Teague Invites You to Find Your Groove With His Furniture|url=https://www.curbed.com/2020/11/norman-teague-wants-you-to-carve-your-name-in-his-tables.html|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Curbed|publisher=New York (magazine)|language=en-us}}{{Cite web|last=Bertoli|first=Rosa|date=2021-01-20|title=Norman Teague on rewriting design history and designing to 'chill'|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/design/norman-teague-rewrites-design-film|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Wallpaper* Magazine}} and educator.{{Cite web|last=Evans|first=Maxwell|date=October 25, 2019|title=With $25,000 Award, South Shore Designer Norman Teague Wants To Open An Accessible South Side Art Studio|url=https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/10/25/with-25000-award-south-shore-designer-norman-teague-wants-to-open-an-accessible-south-side-art-studio/|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Block Club Chicago|language=en}} Teague co-founded the Chicago-based design studio, blkHaUs Studios,{{Cite web|date=2021-07-21|title=News: Folayemi Wilson named as Penn State Arts & Architecture's first associate dean for access and equity|url=https://www.bestarchitecturemasters.com/news-folayemi-wilson-named-as-penn-state-arts-architectures-first-associate-dean-for-access-and-equity/|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Best Architecture Masters}}{{Cite web|last=Reich|first=Howard|date=March 14, 2018|title=Back Alley Jazz Revives a Chicago Tradition|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/412186143/|url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Newspapers.com|publisher=Chicago Tribune|pages=4–2|language=en}} and in 2019 went on to form his own Norman Teague Design Studios. In addition to his studio practices Teague currently resides as a professor in the school of industrial design at University of Illinois Chicago.{{Cite web|title=Norman Teague {{!}} UIC - School of Design|url=https://design.uic.edu/people/norman-teague|access-date=2021-10-27|website=design.uic.edu}}
Early life and education
Teague grew up on the South Side of Chicago in Bronzeville, and he is African American.
Originally interested in pursuing a career in architecture, Teague attended Harold Washington College. He went to further his studies at Columbia College Chicago, but after exposure to wood shop and smaller scale design he pivoted his focus to industrial Design.{{Cite web|last=Polidori|first=Kendall|date=2019-11-02|title=Alumnus recognized for personal, lifelike designs reflecting his Chicago upbringing|url=https://columbiachronicle.com/alumnus-recognized-for-personal-lifelike-designs-reflecting-his-chicago-upbringing|access-date=2021-10-27|website=The Columbia Chronicle}} Teague received an BA degree in product design from Columbia College Chicago in 2014. He then went on to pursue a master's degree in designed objects from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which he received in 2016.
Career
In 2016, Teague co-founded with Fo Wilson the design studio blkHaUs Studios in Chicago.{{Cite web|last=Adamson|first=Glenn|title=The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/state-american-craft-never-been-stronger-180976483/|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}} Their work was focused on making public spaces in Chicago more inviting for the public.
In 2019, he went on to form his own Norman Teague Design Studios.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020-06-05|title=It's Time to Diversify Your Sourcing. Here's Where to Start|url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/its-time-to-diversify-your-sourcing-heres-where-to-start|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Architectural Digest|publisher=Condé Nast|language=en-US}} Teague's work seeks to use design to "empower brown and black communities".
He is best known for his furniture,{{Cite web|date=December 22, 2015|title=All the Standouts from This Year's Top Design Events|url=https://metropolismag.com/projects/all-standouts-this-years-top-design-events/|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Metropolis|language=en-US}} some of which resides in the museum collection of The Art Institute of Chicago,{{Citation|last=Teague|first=Norman|title=Sinmi Stool (Prototype)|date=2015|url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/254380/sinmi-stool-prototype|work=Art Institute of Chicago|access-date=2021-10-27}} and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).{{Cite web|last1=Kaplan|first1=Wendy|last2=Mills|first2=Rosie|last3=Steinberger|first3=Staci|last4=Tigerman|first4=Bobbye|date=August 3, 2021|title=2021 DA² Acquisitions|url=https://unframed.lacma.org/2021/08/03/2021-da2-acquisitions|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Unframed, Los Angeles County Museum of Art}} He has also worked in performance art, installation art,{{Cite web|last=Englefield|first=Jane|date=September 21, 2021|title=Ten installations to see at the Chicago Architecture Biennial|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/21/chicago-architecture-biennial-2021-installations/|website=dezeen}} and sculpture. Teague has worked with notable collaborators such as Theaster Gates, and acted as a consultant on The Barack Obama Presidential Center with the firm Ralph Applebaum. His work was in the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial.
In 2024, Teague's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition in New York, Designer’s Choice: Norman Teague—Jam Sessions contrasted pieces from the museum's collection with "reimaginings [...] assisted by generative AI" through which the designer "offers a reinterpretation of design history."{{Cite web |title=Designer's Choice: Norman Teague—Jam Sessions |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5741 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}}
For the 2025 exhibition Pirouette: Turning Points in Design at MoMA,{{Cite web |title=Pirouette: Turning Points in Design |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5756 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}} Teague was invited by Paola Antonelli to present "C" for Chair at a special Abecedarium where "Twenty-six designers, scholars, DJs, photographers, and entrepreneurs [...] each present[ed] on one paradigm-shifting object or idea, each corresponding to one letter of the alphabet."{{Cite web |title=Pirouette Abecedarium |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10289 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official site}}
- [https://www.knoll.com/design-plan/resources/research/k-talks/replay-form-language Form Language] A Conversation Between Ini Archibong and Norman Teague (Knoll)
- [https://www.designburger.com/design-dialogues/norman-teague/ Norman Teague] Design Burger visual interview series with original drawings by Teague
- [https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/1115 Norman Teague: JAM SESSION] (Museum of Modern Art)
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Category:African-American designers
Category:African-American sculptors
Category:American furniture designers
Category:Columbia College Chicago alumni
Category:Designers from Chicago
Category:Educators from Chicago
Category:People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni