- John Grade Murmur
MURMUR: ARCTIC REALITIES
JOHN GRADE
Mystic Seaport, The Musuem of America and the Sea
Mystic, CTMystic Seaport hosts the international debut of John Grade’s Murmur: Arctic Realities, which will be on view till April 22. Using salvaged Alaskan yellow cedar, Grade has created Murmur (15′ x 38′ x 42′), an intricately carved sculptural form that represents a pingo: hillocks of ice that aggregate over centuries in the Arctic’s highest latitudes. In the cycle of freezing and thawing, the pingos collapse, speckling the tundra landscape. Murmur simulates a specific pingo in Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve, one that Grade mapped using photogrammetry. Given its impressive scale, visitors can enter inside the sculpture as its walls open and close. Murmur‘s kinetic movement mimics the pingo’s life cycle, underscoring the accelerated pace of thawing in the Arctic due to climate change.
- John Grade Spur Idaho
SPUR
JOHN GRADE
Sun Valley Center for the Arts
Wood River Trail, Ketchum, IDCYNTHIA-REEVES is pleased to announce the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new public art installation by John Grade. Commissioned by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts for their Craters of the Moon project, John Grade’s Spur will be sited in its new permanent location at 4 p.m., Saturday, October 15th, along with Wood River Trail in Ketchum. Grade’s sculpture was initially installed earlier this year at Craters of the Moon National Monument as part of a larger exhibition presented by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. The sculpture helped celebrate the centennial year of the National Park Service.
Press Release (pdf)
- John Grade Anchorage
VIEW FROM UP HEREJOHN GRADE
Polar Lab at the Anchorage Museum
May 6 – October 2, 2016Seattle artist John Grade explores sculptural forms that suggest floats. Glass fishing floats have been making their way to the Alaska Arctic coast from Asia on ocean currents for the past century. They get trapped in sea ice – sometimes for decades – and wash up on shore in sound condition. Grade created glass and wood sculptures inspired by these fishing floats for the exhibition View From Up Here. Some floats are currently in Arctic waters, tethered just off shore. The ones in the exhibition have stayed behind and remain in pristine condition.
- Grade at Renwick
WONDERJOHN GRADE
Renwick Gallery,
Smithsonian American Art Museum
November 13, 2015 – July 10, 2016WONDER, the debut exhibition at the newly renovated Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, celebrates the opening of the historic building with immersive installations by nine leading artists-Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Doughtery, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin and Leo Villareal.
Press Release (pdf)
Janet Echelman, Press Release (pdf)
John Grade, Press Release (pdf) - John Grade Canopy Tower
CANOPY TOWERJOHN GRADE
Austin Contemporary Museum,
Currently on view at the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna GloriaHis first project in Texas, Grade, inspired by the wind blowing off the lake and through the many large, old trees that dot the site, has conceived a large-scale inverted tower, suspended from three trees on the lower grounds. This tower, assembled and carved from ipe wood, hangs off the ground high enough for a viewer to duck inside into quiet isolation, allowing for two separate experiences of the piece. While the sculpture is stationary on the bottom half, creating a sense of shelter, the top half is given the flexibility to move with the wind, juxtaposing the sheltering experience with the flux of a wind-driven moment.