GORDON BROWNING
Bio:
I have always collected wood and worked with wood. For thirty years, however, my day job was teaching French language and literature at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. I have lived several years in France and traveled in Asia and Africa. I now live with my wife, Olga, out in the country on a small farm in southwestern Wisconsin.
For the last fifteen years I have been exhibiting in craft shows: the American Craft Council shows in San Francisco, St Paul, and Baltimore; the Washington DC Craft Show; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. In 2013 I had a Gallery Show in Miami during Art Basel Miami, and in June 2014 I exhibited in the Art Store of the Beyeler Museum in Basel, Switzerland. Fall 2019 I was represented by the Maria Elena Kravetz Gallery in SOFA Chicago
Contact:
Artist Statement:
I make lathe-turned, blind-hollowed vessels.
Most of my wood is salvage. My projects start with raw logs and a chain saw. I have been working with wood from North and Central America, wood from the Caribbean, and, after a trip to Africa, African timber. Finding my wood is part of a vessel's story.
Aesthetically, I favor clean, full-bodied curves that respect the grain and hint at the log beneath.
Technically, the vessel walls are uniformly thin (3/16”) for lightness and balance, and the hole at the top is finger-tip small (about 1/2”). I use a tung oil or beeswax finish that preserves the wood's natural look and invites touch.
Gordon Browning, Red Planet, 2019, Wild Tamarind, 9x12x12 inches, collection of the artist
Gordon Browning, Black Earth, 2018, Ziricote, 5.75x6.75x6.75 inches, collection of the artist
Gordon Browning, Morning Star, 2010, Black Ash Burl, 7x8x8 inches, collection of the artist
Gordon Browning, Basalt, 2016, Wenge, 9x10.5x10.5 inches, collection of the artist
Gordon Browning, Red Desert, 2010, Cuban Mahogany, 6.75x16x16 inches, collection of the artist
Guide by Cell
