Arts Design

MONUMENTAL TREE SCULPTURES: JOHN GRADE

“Canopy Tower,” sculpture by John Grade. Courtesy of The Contemporary Austin. Austin, Texas.

JOHN GRADE

Trees are nature’s sculptures as much as they are lifeforms and key players in many ecosystems. They are beautifully crafted, as they grow, with beautiful shapes. Artist John Grade creates tree sculptures using trees as both his models and materials.

Inspired by changing geological and biological forms and systems in the natural world, Grade and his studio team create large-scale site-specific immersive sculptural installations. He has been working with a series of projects related to trees for the past several years.

Impermanence and chance are frequent aspects. Kinetics and relationships between the natural world and architecture are frequent themes.

Grade spends as much time as possible amongst Bristlecone Pines in the Nevada Great Basin, as well as closer to home in old-growth groves in the Olympic and Cascade Mountains.

“Middle Fork,” tree sculpture by John Grade at Seattle Art Museum.

Image: “Middle Fork,” Tree sculpture, by John Grade. Courtesy of Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, WA.

“Treeline,” an epic installation at the Karl Miller Center atrium at Portland State University, is made primarily from Alaskan yellow cedar salvaged in SE Alaska. The upper reaches of the sculpture are made with metasequoia salvaged from the site of the building.

“Middle Fork,” tree sculpture by John Grade, on display at “Wonder” Exhibition at the Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C.

Image: by Ron Cogswell. “Middle Fork,” by John Grade. “Wonder” Exhibition. Renwick Gallery. Washington D.C.

The sculpture, which measures 31' x 12' x 10', is suspended 10' above the building entry, adjacent a five-story wall of windows. It is visible from both outside and inside the building. The sculpture is inspired by the Great Basin bristlecone pine, one of the oldest living trees in the world.

“Middle Fork,” tree sculpture by John Grade on exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum.

Image: by Benjamin Benschneider. “Middle Fork,” by John Grade. Courtesy of Seattle Art Museum.

Grade’s “Middle Fork” is currently installed in the Seattle Art Museum's Brotman Forum (the main entry to the museum) and will remain their through 2019. The piece was originally created in 2015 at the MadArt Studio in Seattle. Each time “Middle Fork” has been exhibited since then, it has increased in length and width. The sculpture is currently 105’ long with limbs radiating 30’ wide.

Looking through “Middle Fork,” a tree sculpture by John Grade on exhibition at MadArt Space in Seattle.

Image: by Nancy Worden, Ask Jewelry Addict. “Looking into the base and through the form of Middle Fork sculpture by artist John Grade.” MadArt Space. Seattle, WA.

This piece was cast from a living 140-year old hemlock tree which stands within a forest near the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River in the Cascade Foothills in Washington State.

Grade and his team began by making a full plaster cast of the living tree, then used this mold to recreate the tree’s form out of thousands of pieces of reclaimed old-growth cedar.

Sculptor John Grade assembling his piece, “Middle Fork,” at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Image: Sculptor John Grade assembling “Middle Fork” at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Courtesy of Renwick Gallery at Smithsonian American Art Museum. Washington D.C.

After the sculpture has completed its exhibition cycle, it will be laid at the base of this tree to gradually moss over and disintegrate into the ground. The process of decay will be captured with time-lapse photography and motion sensor video.

Over 3000 people have contributed to the creation of the sculpture.

“Canopy Tower,” tree sculpture by John Grade at the Contemporary Austin Museum grounds.

Image: “Canopy Tower,” sculpture by John Grade. Courtesy of The Contemporary Austin. Austin, Texas.

Grade’s “Canopy Tower” is currently installed at the Contemporary Austin Museum’s sculpture park at Laguna Gloria. A trail beside Lake Austin leads to the sculpture through a densely wooded section of the grounds.

Interior view of “Canopy Tower,” tree sculpture by John Grade at the Contemporary Austin Museum.

Image: “Canopy Tower,” sculpture by John Grade. Courtesy of The Contemporary Austin. Austin, Texas.

The hollow fluted wood form (Ipe hardwood) is 16’ high, 15’ in diameter, and suspended 4’ above the ground. Rope runs horizontally and vertically through the interior of each of the sculpture’s carved panels and connects to steel supports 40 feet above the ground. It is rigged to move with the wind, yet remain stable.

Looking through the trunk of “Middle Fork,” tree sculpture by John Grade.

Image: by Ron Cogswell. “Middle Fork,” by John Grade. “Wonder” Exhibition. Renwick Gallery.” Washington D.C.

While most artists create small-scale sculptures and works on paper in planning out their larger works, Grade creates these following the completion of large-scale installations so he can investigate alternative directions that his larger sculptures might have taken.

Assembling giant tree sculpture installation by John Grade at the Seattle Art Museum.

Image: by Frank Fujimoto. “Middle Fork John Grade.” Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, WA.

Grade recreated a magnificent 40-foot tall 150-year old tree from the Cascade Mountains for the grand reopening of the Renwick Gallery, in Washington, DC.

He hired arborists to work with his team to rope up the tree, setting up a pulley system to haul up buckets of water, to create a handcrafted plaster cast, while protecting the tree throughout the process.

Artist John Grade instructs his team in assembling tree sculptures.

Image: Still from John Grade’s “Middle Fork,” comes home to Seattle Art Museum. Sculpture, by John Grade. Courtesy of Seattle Art Museum.

Grade, his team, and hundreds of volunteers individually glued about a half million precisely measured segments of reclaimed, old-growth cedar to the cast. It took many months to recreate each detail of the original tree by hand.

Grade is currently working on a three-year project documenting and modeling changing landforms above the Arctic Circle with a particular interest in pingos, tundra polygons, peat mounds and palsas.

John Grade’s studio as he constructs sections of his massive tree sculptures.

Image: by Amos Morgan. “Pieces in Progress.” Middle Fork,” Tree sculpture by John Grade. Courtesy of John Grade.

John is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (NY), a Tiffany Foundation Award (NY), three Andy Warhol Foundation Grant Awards (NY), two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants (NY), the Arlene Schnitzer Prize from the Portland Art Museum (OR).

“Middle Fork,” tree sculpture, by John Grade at MadArt Space in Seattle.

Image: “Middle Fork,” tree sculpture, by John Grade. Courtesy of MadArt Space. Seattle, WA.

Grade’s work is exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and outdoors in urban spaces and nature. His projects are designed to change over time and often involve collaboration with large groups of people. He lives and works in Seattle.

Detail view of John Grade’s “Wawona” tree sculpture.

Image: by John Grade. “Finished wood for the “Wawona” sculpture at John Grade’s studio.”

Read more about Beautiful Trees all this week on BeautifulNow. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.

Detail view of John Grade’s “Middle Fork” tree sculpture.

Image: by urban bohemian. “John Grade ‘Middle Fork.’"

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Competition.

“Middle Fork,” tree sculpture by John Grade, at “Wonder” Exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, in Washington, D.C.

Image: by Ron Cogswell. “Middle Fork,” tree sculpture by John Grade. “Wonder” Exhibition at the Renwick Gallery. Washington, D.C.