John Jordan
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Columbus Art Museum, Columbus, GA
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England, UK
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Long Beach Museum of Art; Long Beach, CA
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
Racine Museum of Art; Racine, WI
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington,
DC
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
The White House Collection of American Crafts, Washington,
DC
Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008 Turned & Sculptured Wood, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, New York, NY
New Novel and Never Shown Before 2008: Recent Gifts to the Collection (I), Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
Eighth Sculptural Wood Invitational, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA
Spotlight On Wood, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Woodturning Over The Edge, Pritchard Gallery, Moscow, ID
2004-08 Collect, The Crafts Council, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
2007 John Jordan, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Seventh Sculptural Wood Exhibit, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA
2007 Far From The Tree, American Association of Woodturners Exhibit, AAW Gallery, St. Paul, MN
Messler Gallery, Rockport, ME
Turning Green, American Association of Woodturners Exhibit, Portland College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR
Japanese Bowls- A Western Perspective, American Association of Woodturners Exhibit, Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR
Woodturning In Basic Black, American Association of Woodturners Exhibit, SOFA Exposition, Chicago, IL
Seventh Sculptural Wood Invitational, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA
2002-07 Turned Wood-Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Turning Wood into Art, A gift from Jane and Arthur Mason to The Gelman Library, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, The George Washington University, Washington DC
Works from the Permanent Collection, Lampos Gallery, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
Turning Wood into Art, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, England
Woodturning on the Edge, Pritchard Art Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Fourinone, Contemporary American Woodturning, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN
John Jordan-New Work, Cervini Haas Gallery/ Gallery Materia, Scottsdale, AZ
2004-06 Nature Transformed, Wood Art from The Bohlen Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
2004-06 Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, New York, NY
2005 Masters of Wood Art III, Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, TN
Collectors of Wood Art Forum, Philadelphia, PA
A Nation of Enchanted Form: Woodturning Artists of North America, AAW Gallery, St. Paul, MN
Masters of Wood, Cervini Haas Gallery/Gallery Materia, Scottsdale, AZ
The Appeal of Woodturning, Leu Art Gallery, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
2001-05 Turned & Sculptured Wood, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002-05 Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL
2004 Selections from Arrowmont’s Permanent Collection, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
Celebrating Nature: Craft Traditions/ Contemporary Expressions, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Beneath the Bark: Highlights from a Quarter Century of the Woodturners Art, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, UT
Celebrating Contemporary Craft, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
2003 Turning Wood Into Art, Janice Charach Epstein Gallery, West Bloomfield, MI
Your Turn: Collecting Wood Art, The Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
John Jordan, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
One Step Back, Two Steps Forward, Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Fourth Contemporary Wood Invitational, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA
Masters of Wood Art II, Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, TN
A Tribute to Rude Osolnik: An Exhibition of Contemporary Turned Wood, Kentucky Museum of Arts + Design, Louisville, KY
Collectors of Wood Art Forum, Santa Fe, NM
The Art of Tennessee, First Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
John Jordan, Tennessee Art Commission, Nashville, TN
2001-03 Challenge VI-Roots: Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned Objects,
Berman Museum of Art, Collegeville, PA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Columbus Gallery, Columbus, IN
Washington State University Museum of Art, Pullman, WA
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
The Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
2002 Contemporary Works In Wood, Ironwood Gallery, Ridgefield, CT
Contemporary Wood, Wave Gallery, New Haven, CT
Best of Tennessee Crafts, Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN
Surface + Form, Craftwest Gallery, Perth, Australia
Southeastern Craft Innovations, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Branching Out: Contemporary Wood Turning in 2002, Ellipse Arts Center, Arlington, VA
Tennessee Masterworks, Madison Art Center, Madison, TN
Yale Collects Wood: Gifts from the Collection of John and Robyn Horn, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2001-02 Woodturning In North America Since 1930,
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Renwick Gallery, The Smithsonian Art Museum, Washington, DC
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2001 Head Turners, Diverse Approaches in Wood, The Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
Best of Tennessee, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
Turning Wood Into Art: Selections from the Jane and Arthur Mason Collection, Emory and Henry College, Emory, VA
John Jordan, Gallery Materia, Scottsdale, AZ
Nature Takes a Turn: Woodturnings Inspired by the Natural World; The American Association of Woodturners and The Minnesota Museum of American Art; St Paul, MN
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006 American Craft, Vol. 66, No. 5, p. 60, October/November
2005 Hampton, Ron, Small and Miniature Turning - a complete guide, Guild of Master Craftsman Publications
2004 Woodturning, England, No 134, front cover, p. 47-51, April
Leier, Peters, Wallace, 500 Wood Bowls -Bold and Original Blending Tradition and Innovation, Lark Books
2002 The Craft Factor, "Scratching the Surface", Vol. 27.1, p. 26, fall
Traditional Home, p. 102, May
Turning Points, Vol. 15, No. 1, p. 25
Woodturning, England, No. 118, p. 47-49, December
2000 Hosaluk, Michael, Scratching the Surface, Guild Publishing
Ramljak, Monroe, Turning Wood into Art: The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection, Mint
Museum of Craft + Design in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
American Craft, Vol. 60, No. 5, p. 108-109, October/November
ABOUT THE ARTIST
John Jordan is a woodturner from Cane Ridge (Nashville), Tennessee. Known primarily for his textured and carved hollow vessels, John has been featured in nearly every major turning exhibition for the past twenty years. His work has received numerous awards and can be found in many corporate and private collections, as well as the permanent collections of twenty five museums.
John is in great demand as a demonstrator/teacher, traveling extensively and teaching at universities, craft schools, turning groups and trade shows throughout the US, Canada, the UK, France, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. This includes an annual week or two at the world famous Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village, CO. His work, along with articles he has written, is frequently seen in publications in several countries, and can be found in numerous books on woodturning and craft. He has also produced three instructional woodturning videos, which are very popular.
John's pieces are initially turned on the lathe, from fresh, green logs, using a number of techniques and tools that have evolved over the years. Each piece is then hand carved and textured, using a variety of different hand and small powered tools. This texturing process is very labor intensive, and can take as much as several days to weeks to complete. There is little room for error during this carving- one small slip can ruin the piece. A light lacquer finish is applied to most pieces, including the dyed work.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
The pieces I make are simple but finely detailed vessels. Manipulating the color and patterns in the wood to complement the form and the texturing, and carving to create visual and tactile contrasts are important parts of the process and the result. What I feel is most important is the intangible quality that the piece is "right" that comes with putting emotion and feeling into the work. A simple object can be very powerful and emotional just for what it is. These pieces are simply decorative vessels that reflect my interest in surface textures/contrasts and form, and the personal responses that I have to them, which I suspect are similar to the feelings that makers of objects have felt for thousands of years.
I am inspired by many natural things – trees, rock formations, coral reefs – since all of these things exhibit pattern and texture etc. Ethnic objects such as pots, weavings and baskets are interesting to me as well, along with contemporary craft and art. Any sort of art inspires, and I enjoy museum visits wherever I travel.
Probably the single largest influence at any time is the work I am currently making. It never fails to provoke and provide ideas. I am always curious to find out what I will do next.
Many of the woods that I use are from the dump, construction sites etc. I find great satisfaction in creating elegant objects from material that was destined to be buried or burned.
Using fresh-cut logs in my work, the wood is a very direct and responsive medium, with properties that are unique not about the "woodiness" but the working qualities that it has. With my knowledge of the material, I can exert a great deal of control over the desired result. I am able to work with surface textures and shapes that would sometimes be difficult in other materials. I am, however, connected to the material of wood as a potter is connected to the clay-it's what I do and who I am.