Beach Chair

Beach Chair by Charleston artist Nick Kawczynski is a one-of-a-kind mixed-media assemblage that turns salvaged materials into a playful tribute to a familiar piece of coastal life. At the center, Nick has constructed a tiny three-dimensional beach chair by hand from reclaimed marine-grade plywood, setting it against bold stripes of blue, purple, and cream.

Like many of Nick’s creations, the materials have stories of their own. The wood was sourced through the Lowcountry Maritime Society, where Nick volunteers. The organization teaches local students the traditional craft of boatbuilding, including the construction of Bevins skiffs, and Nick transforms leftover marine-grade plywood from that work into original pieces of art rather than letting it go to waste.

The striped background is reclaimed, too—and this is where Beach Chair gets especially clever. It is made from the fabric of an old discarded beach chair. The original chair becomes the backdrop while leftover boatbuilding wood is transformed into a new miniature chair in its place, giving two very different salvaged materials an entirely new life together.

Nick embraces the weathering, texture, and imperfections of the materials rather than disguising them. Paired with the vivid blue-green frame and wonderfully offbeat construction, those details give Beach Chair the funky, handmade character that makes his work so distinctive. It is coastal art with a sense of humor: familiar, unexpected, and not the least bit precious.

Beach Chair is an original, one-of-a-kind work of art made entirely by hand from found and repurposed materials. There is only one.

Available at Gray Man Gallery in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

15"W x 15"H