FLORIAN OKWU
Florian Okwu is an abstract artist & designer currently based in Providence RI. His earliest years were spent in San Francisco, Shanghai and Los Angeles, later graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2024 with a Sculpture BFA. Florian currently works as an independent fine artist as well as the owner of okflo, a sculptural objects & furniture based design studio.
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As much as I like to run from discussing multicultural identity alongside my work, it feels important to note that I don’t see any one geographic location as “home”. There is some melancholia in this, and although there is no denying that my time in California had far more influence on my character than anywhere else, I still feel removed from a sole cultural or national root. This explains some of my interest in the abstract sculptural arts, as they present an opportunity to create and assimilate to a new culture, made entirely from a language and belief system I can call my own.
I spent some time after high-school studying business at a liberal arts college, this was short lived, but it gave me an opportunity to see just how unfit I was for a non-artistic career path. Not long after, I transferred to a university which better suited my tactile interests, but even there I wasn’t yet entirely convinced or confident in my artistic potential. I began with a semester long introduction to Industrial Design, (another opportunity for dismay) before a final and permanent switch to Sculpture: The degree with which I finished my undergrad at the Rhode Island School of Design. During my time there I strongly rejected what felt like a suffocating overprioritization of conceptual artistic practices over any types of technical mastery (partially unique to my department). I don’t regret my rejection, as my narrow focus on the physical carving process gave me the confidence to begin my career post-graduation. However, it has become more and more evident to me since graduating that there is a necessity in understanding the meaning and reason for one’s work, even if it is just for oneself... This was largely made clear to me thanks to my partner, also an artist, who graduated from the RISD Glass Department. I’ve found that beyond the free confines of education it’s far too easy to slip: To reallign the scale which balances an artist’s career between work made for one’s soul with the kind made for financial and reputational advancement. I did not become an artist because I wanted to sell my work nor simply to feature in galleries. It is not the title of artist that drew me in, but the ephemera which exist within the process of creation: The endless learning and exploration of my limits, as well as those of the materials I work with. It is the process of creation as a whole which draws me in, the obsessions over minute details, symmetries, meaningless forms and the physical appreciation and capture of a mysterious, man-made beauty.
While I still value a belief that all I want is to “simply” create beautiful work, it has become a priority for me to understand the words that exist beyond beautiful: Those which define the ambitions and obsessions I take to my creative process, and which truly capture the torrents of thoughts, inspirations and hopes that pool around my work. I have no doubt my attempts to describe such complex things will take many years, but these are the first steps towards understanding what it is I create. Importantly, I must write them here, right now, rather than chasing a perfection to neatly present.
One reason I avoided writing or discussing any conceptual aspects of my work in these three years since I began carving is because of how early a stage I occupy in my career. Its why the unbalanced prioritization of concept during my time in art school bothered me so much; it seemed no different than asking a child to discuss their novel while they are still learning how to write. But maybe I was a little too harsh, and seeing through a twisted, misunderstanding lens. Admittedly, I’ve come around to the conceptual sides of art, enough so that I can be honest with myself and my work. Even though each of my pieces is, still, essentially an experiment, they mark the checkpoints of learnings and understandings which will never end. This is important, as the experimental nature of each of my works (however refined, compacted or “thought-out” they may appear) is essential to a constantly expanding curiosity. So where is this all going?
I like to consider the existence of a world located beyond any one medium, populated with my sentences. Not written ones, but those created from the words of an imagined language. Each sculpture I create here, now, is a practicing of these words, unstructured, raw and entirely my own to formalize. The culmination of this language is a fluency that transcends any one artistic format, opening the door to a confidence which allows for storytelling, recounting memories, and recording life’s conversations through any medium: Architecture, writing, painting... This is what strikes me as the most important goal: To fluently speak through my work, as well as for my work to hold the refinement, labor and presense for each word to be understood and meant in a search for authenticity, truth, and an endless exploration into the bounds of potential.
But, this is a future still unseen, and until then, I work to bring into this world objects which are beautiful, each containing a value determined not just by the accumulation of my labor and their aesthetic presence, but by their potential. I believe that art treated with the right balance of care takes on a life of its own, exceeding the intentions of its creator to become the vehicles of anyone’s inner mythologies, as well as proofs of a passing life. These are what I seek to make and spend my time refining: Objects which become alive, not through movement, sound, or material, but by the impregnation of a soul which will mature beyond that which was poured into them.
Florian Okwu
05/15/2025
Education:
Rhode Island School of Design
BFA Sculpture 2021-2024
Lycée International de Los Angeles
International Baccalaureate 2013-2018
Experience:
Independent Fine Artist
Self Employed - 06/2022 to Present
Woodshop & Coldshop Monitor
Rhode Island School of Design - 01/2023 to 06/2024
Resident Intern
Carving Studio & Sculpture Center - 06/2023 to 09/2023
Creative Director
TradeUp - 05/2022 to 11/2023
Design Consultant
Cultura Venray - 11/2019 to 12/2019