The Art of Nicholas Galanin

Raven and First Immigrant, 2009.
Photo courtesy of Wayne Leidenfrost/Vancouver Sun.

Nicholas Galanin is most recently famous for the art work he did this past March for Boekenweek, the annual Dutch literature event.  But the artist is well-known for making modern art pieces with a traditional twist.

Curriculum Vitae - written portraits of Anne Frank, Vincent
van Gogh, Kader Abdolah, and Louis van Gaal,
for Boekenweek, 2011.  Images courtesy of CPNB.

Born in Sitka, Alaska, he comes from a background of artisans.  His great-grandfather was a wood sculptor.  His father works in precious metal and stone. When he was young he apprenticed with his father and uncle, then other local traditional artists.

Four Seasons, hand engraved copper pillar,
2008, showing spring and winter.

Same pillar showing fall and summer.

Deciding to pursue a formal education, he studied at London Guildhall University from 2000-2003.  Although he graduated with a B.F.A. with honors in jewelry design and silversmithing, he did more modern art work on the side.

Inert, 2009, photo courtesy Wayne Leidenfrost/Vancouver Sun.

Looking for a place he could develop as an artist more creatively with less rigid training, he attended Massey University in New Zealand.  He graduated there with an M.A. in Indigenous Visual Arts.

The Imaginery Indian:  yéil, 2008.
Photo courtesy Wayne Leidenfrost/Vancouver Sun.

Eventually, he moved back to Sitka.  Trained in both traditional as well as contemporary approaches to art, he blends them together.  His work reveals his cultural background and his exploratory nature.  His art is political in the sense that he mocks how native cultures are adopted and adapted into preconceived notions. He cleverly employs traditional cultural themes in ways and mediums that reflect their appropriation by the mainstream.

The Good Book Vol. 15, 2006.
1000 pages containing text from the Holy Bible with human hair.

With such an impressive oeuvre of a wide variety of themes and techniques, his popularity is understandable.  One can only contemplate what he will create next....

S'igeika'awu:  Ghost, 2009.

The Imaginary Indian Series, 2009.
The artist claims "a modern skeletal ruin of ghost like
objects hang on gallery and collection walls, most of
which mimic a romantic cultural lifestyle."

Engraved copper bracelet, 2004.

Knowledge, 2008, 2500 pages of cut and bound paper.  Pages from
Under Mount Elias:  The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit
Parts one, Two, and Three by Frederica de Laguna.

What Have We Become? Vol. 3, 2006, 1000 pages.

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Unless otherwise noted, images courtesy of 

the artist's website.

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Screwing Around With Books

"For Stuart Callan, 1962 - 2005", 2005, paper and screws, approx. 11.5' x 12.75' x 1.3'
Courtesy of  The Mattress Factory, Pittsburg

Close up of above work.

Well, that's what Jonathan Callan does.  The internationally famous artist uses books as a sculptural medium, screwing masses of books together.  He also uses paper, glue, plaster, silicone, rubber and other things in his creations.  Although he makes many different forms of sculpture, his used books ones are phenomenal.

"Neon", 2007, paper and screws.

An avid reader, Callan was also "drawn" to art.  Combining the two seemed a natural way for him to go.  Recycling old books as art materials that have had previous lives is how Callan expresses himself.  Born in Deptford, England, which is close to where Christopher Marlowe was murdered, he came from a literary background.  For the last fifteen years, however, his world has changed to a visual one.

"Mass", 2003, silicone, rubber and paper.
How many of you have felt this way about a particular book?

"Rational Snow", 2002, aerated concrete, wood, book, approx. 8" x 11 x 19"
Private collection, courtesy of the artist.

His "supplies" come from libraries, used book stores, and flea markets.  Most of the books he uses would be pulped, so by using them for his art he is recycling them and giving them new purpose.  In some places where he has built sculptures, the books are donated by the local people, and are collected for him to use.  A fifteen-foot high sculpture with an organic shape will use about 3,000 books.

"The Defrauder", 2006, paper and screws.

"The Library of Past Choice", 2007, paper and screws, approx. 19' x 12' x 2'
Courtesy of the Grusenmeyer Art Gallery.

The books - phone books, soft cover, hard cover, magazines - are folded over and held together with wood screws.  In some of his pieces he colors the edges with watered-down paint so it will seep into the edges.  A large sculpture, with one person helping, can take two weeks, working twelve hours a day.

"Politics", paper and screws.

His pieces aren't made to last forever, though.  Most of the books he uses are made of wood pulp which is acidic and deteriorates in time.  His pieces are about the process of becoming however, and he has stated that he's disappointed when he's done, not in the piece but that the making of it is over.  He enjoys the process.

"The Theoretical Assumptions of Management", 2008,
 approx. 3.3' x 3.3' x 1.4', courtesy of the Kudlek van Grinten Galerie.

Books are competing with electronic reading but they are stalwart warriors:  they have overcome burnings and bannings.  The tomes in Callan's work are like a meeting of the minds; a celebration of the physicality of the written word.  Using books as a skeletal framework, concepts of their meaning, import, and history can be physically and mentally reimagined.

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