Biography

John Buck is both a sculptor and a printmaker. He works with two interrelated bodies of work: carved wood, assemblage and bronze sculptures, and large, multicolored woodblock prints. The works on paper we represent come from a long time collaboration with master printer Bud Shark. Since beginning this collaboration  in 1983, Buck has explored the expressive possibilities of woodblock in more than 40 different prints.

Using a pen, a nail or his fingernail, Buck incises the wood planks that form the base and background of his prints with images and symbols drawn from the daily news, from his own sculpture and from nature. Embedded in this active visual field is a large, carved image, often a figure, but he has also depicted a jar full of fireflies, an eagle, or a subtly colored moth. The relationship between these two elements first engages the viewer in an appreciation of the beauty of the graphic quality in the print and then begins a conversation about our world and our place in it.

Buck’s recent woodcuts include “Botanica”, “The Reflecting Pool” and “The Preserve". His newest woodcut, “The Singer Tract”, shows a large jar containing an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, set against a background of topical, political commentary. This print addresses extinction and preservation as a theme in contemporary society.

John Buck lives in Montana and Hawaii and has shown his woodcuts and sculptures widely. A retrospective exhibition of his prints was organized by the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco in 1993 and traveled to The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; the Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA; the University of Southwestern Louisiana University Art Museum, Lafayette, LA; and the Loveland Museum, Loveland, CO. He has completed a major bronze sculpture commission for Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon. His work is in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Seattle Art Museum and others.