John Jordan

Source: http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/collections/exhibits/whc/whc-intro.htmlBorn 1950, Resides in Antioch, TennesseeKnown primarily for his textured and carved hollow vessels and small necked bottles, John Jordan has been featured in nearly every major turning exhibition the past five years, including "International Lathe Turned Objects - Challenge V", and "Redefining the Lathe-Turned Object". He teaches woodturning throughout the US and the UK. In 1994, his work was shown in Munich, Germany and at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The American Craft Museum in New York City, the Fine Arts Museum of the South in Mobile, Alabama, and the Bank of Nashville all have Jordan's work in their collections. He's former President of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, and Former Vice-President and a founding member of the Tennessee Association of Woodturners. 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. "The woods that I use are almost all from the damp, construction sites etc. I find great satisfaction in creating objects from material that was destined to be buried or burned."http://delmano.com/artists/wood/jJordan/biography.htm 12-16-2010b. 1950, Nashville, TennesseeSELECTED COLLECTIONSArkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, ARArrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TNBirmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, ALColumbus Art Museum, Columbus, GAThe Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HIThe Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MIFitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England, UKFuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MAHigh Museum of Art, Atlanta, GAHunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TNKnoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TNLos Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CALong Beach Museum of Art; Long Beach, CAThe Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MNMint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NCMobile Museum of Art, Mobile, ALMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, MAMuseum of Arts & Design, New York, NYRacine Museum of Art; Racine, WIRenwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DCTennessee State Museum, Nashville, TNUniversity of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MIThe White House Collection of American Crafts, Washington, DCWood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PAYale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT SELECTED EXHIBITIONS2008 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, ID2004-08 Collect, The Crafts Council, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England2007 John Jordan, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Seventh Sculptural Wood Exhibit, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA2007 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, WA2002-07 Turned Wood-Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2006 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, AZ2004-06 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, NY2004-06 Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, New York, NY2005 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, TN2001-05 Turned & Sculptured Wood, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2002-05 Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL2004 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, AR2003 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, TN2001-03 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, OR2002 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, CT2001-02 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, CT2001 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, MNSELECTED PUBLICATIONS2006 American Craft, Vol. 66, No. 5, p. 60, October/November2005 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 Books2002 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, December2000 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/NovemberABOUT THE ARTISTJohn 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 STATEMENTThe 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.