John Grade

John Grade's drawings, sculptures and installations are weathered, marked, worn and disintegrated. Made of reclaimed wood or paper, the works are buried for termites to devour, sunk into a bay to collect barnacles, or hung in forest trees for birds to eat.

Grade's work represents our changing environment. An attraction to travel and to the land shapes the work, mirroring pattern s found in nature, such as wasp nests, erosion, honeycombs, rocks, trees and the passage of time. Grade invites natural forces to erode and change the work and its material, exploring both control and disruption and risk and measured thought. The works beg in from an experience a reaction to place and history or a trek into the landscape, whether it is the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest or the hills of Iceland.

About the Author

Julie Decker is director of the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, where she has also served as chief curator. She has written extensively on art and architecture and has edited numerous publications, including, most recently, Up Here: The North at the Center of the World.