THE IMMIGRATION, 2016
Jelutong wood
114 x 268 x 168 inches
Price on request
STATE OF THE UNION, 2014
Jelutong wood, acrylic paint on canvas, motor, linocut print on wood, plastic
chains, nylon string
144 x 288 x 85 inches
Price on request
THE MARCH OF FOLLY, 2018
Jelutong wood, acrylic, leather belts, and motor
152 x 283 x 41 inches
Price on request
THE MOTHER OF ALL WARS, 2018
Jelutong wood, acrylic, leather belts, and motor
106 x 72 x 30 inches
Price on request
Cat's Cradle from Softbox on Vimeo.
Currently installed in the gallery, Cat's Cradle, can be viewed in motion in this video https://vimeo.com/99869258.
This video interview and footage is from the exhibition C'est Magnifique at Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette, Louisana, from January - May, 2013.
BORROWED TIME, 2014
Jelutong wood, leather, motors, and acrylic on canvas
123 x 192 x 32 inches
POR
CAT'S CRADLE, 2013
Jelutong wood, leather, motors, and acrylic on canvas
132 x 289 x 106 inches
POR
Installation view 2014
MUSE, 2014
Carved jelutong wood with motor
POR
THE ASCENT, 2004
Carved jelutong wood with motor
83 x 31 x 60 inches
POR
Installation view of: THE ASCENT
AGAINST THE GRAIN, 2002
Carved jelutong wood, leather and motor, 180 x 84 x 36 inches
POR
THE MAGNIFICENT GADGET, 2004
Carved wood, leather, acrylic and motor
157 x 74 x 50 inches
POR
OMNIBUS, 2004
Carved wood, leather and motor, 90 x 56 x 48 inches
POR
Details of the sculpture in motion:
Installation Views - Click to Enlarge
Buck uses jelutong wood as his primary material. It is a soft white wood culled from Malaysian farming operations. Too soft to have any value as a building material, it is perfectly suited to the furniture maker and wood sculptor. The process of its own making becomes very apparent in the finished piece. Every hack mark and chisel cut remains visible. These are not slick, polished pieces. Instead they follow in the tradition of folk art, handmade crafts and votive figures.
John Buck was born in 1946 in Ames, IA. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Institute and School of Design, and went on to study at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME. The artist received his MFA in 1972 from the University of California, Davis, where he also met his wife, artist Deborah Butterfield. Buck and Butterfield divide their time between a ranch in Bozeman, MT and studios in Hawai'i.
He has been the recipient of several major commissions, including artworks for Swedish Medical Center in Seattle in 1998. He was the recipient of the National Artists Award in 1984 and was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980. Buck's work is included in several major collections around the country, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, Honolulu, Denver Art Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Seattle Art Museum. In Chicago, his work can be found at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery.
