Damien Wright lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. An award-winning wood craftsman, Wright has been commissioned to make furniture for prominent public institutions and private collectors, including the Federal Court of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Immigration Museum, Federation Square Management offices, the Koori County Court of Victoria and the Archdiocese of Broken Bay. Wright’s private commissions are represented in family homes and private art collections in Australia, the United States, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. The National Gallery of Australia has acquired his iconic piece, Brief and The National Gallery of Victoria, 5.45 pm 8/02/2020. Wright, in collaboration with Bonhula Yunupingu, has recently won the Victorian Craft Excellence Award. His Tectonic Stool and Console were included in the 2023 NGV Design Fair.
Wright brings together a timeworn set of hand-crafted skills with a modernist design instinct. His risk-taking innovation is to realise his designs through the use of Ancient Red Gum. A semi petrified 10,000 year old timber. The only known black timber in the world. A waste product of mining operation in Wodonga. Through extensive research and sensitive cross-cultural collaboration, Wright has amassed a wealth of knowledge about Australian history, politics and land management practices which have contributed to his design philosophy: that the objects at the core of our material existence should be beautiful, functional and reflect where we live, right here, right now.
