Archive of Author | John K Grande

About John K Grande

A leading figure in art and ecology, John K. Grande is author of a range of books that include Balance: Art and Nature (Black Rose Books, 1994), Intertwining: Landscape, Technology, Issues, Artists (Black Rose Books, 1998), Jouer avec le feu: Armand Vaillancourt: Sculpteur engagé (Montreal: Lanctot, 2001), Art Nature Dialogues (SUNY Press, New York 2003), Dialogues in Diversity; Art from Marginal to Mainstream (Pari, Italy 2007) and Art Space Ecology (Black Rose Books/University of Chicago, 2019). Art in Nature (Korean edition) won the Public Book Prize from the Ministry of Culture, South Korea in 2012. Grande has published countless catalogue essays on artists in Ireland, Belgium, India, Hungary, Czech Republic, Canada, UK, Spain, Poland, Japan, Norway and the United States. Recent books include Nils-Udo; Sur l'Eau (Actes Sud, France, 2015), Az érzékelés kapui / Gates of Perception (T3, Transylvania, 2016), Nadalian (Paradise Art Center, Persian Gulf, Iran, 2017), Bob Verschueren; Ecos de la Memoria ( Valencia, Spain, 2016), In) Formation – Alice Teichert Recent Paintings (Hirmer Verlag, Germany, 2017), Jason de Caires Taylor (Museo Atlantico, Lanzarote, Spain, 2019). John K. Grande's Earth Art shows, curated six times for the Royal Botanical Gardens, and for Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, B.C., the Pori Art Museum, Finland (2011), Meran, Italy (2014), and the Pan Am Games have won awards, including Garden Exhibition of the Year Award from the Canadian Garden Council in 2015. In 2016 John K. Grande co-curated Small Gestures at the Mucsarnok / Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary. He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa, by the University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary in 2015.

A leading figure in art and ecology, John K. Grande is author of a range of books that include Balance: Art and Nature (Black Rose Books, 1994), Intertwining: Landscape, Technology, Issues, Artists (Black Rose Books, 1998), Jouer avec le feu: Armand Vaillancourt: Sculpteur engagé (Montreal: Lanctot, 2001), Art Nature Dialogues (SUNY Press, New York 2003), Dialogues in Diversity; Art from Marginal to Mainstream (Pari, Italy 2007) and Art Space Ecology (Black Rose Books/University of Chicago, 2019).

Art in Nature (Korean edition) won the Public Book Prize from the Ministry of Culture, South Korea in 2012. Grande has published countless catalogue essays on artists in Ireland, Belgium, India, Hungary, Czech Republic, Canada, UK, Spain, Poland, Japan, Norway and the United States. Recent books include Nils-Udo; Sur l’Eau (Actes Sud, France, 2015), Az érzékelés kapui / Gates of Perception (T3, Transylvania, 2016), Nadalian (Paradise Art Center, Persian Gulf, Iran, 2017), Bob Verschueren; Ecos de la Memoria ( Valencia, Spain, 2016),  In) Formation – Alice Teichert Recent Paintings (Hirmer Verlag, Germany, 2017), Jason de Caires Taylor (Museo Atlantico, Lanzarote, Spain, 2019).

John K. Grande’s Earth Art shows, curated six times for the Royal Botanical Gardens, and for Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, B.C., the Pori Art Museum, Finland (2011), Meran, Italy (2014), and the Pan Am Games have won awards, including Garden Exhibition of the Year Award from the Canadian Garden Council in 2015. In 2016 John K. Grande co-curated Small Gestures at the Mucsarnok / Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary. He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa, by the University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary in 2015.

Articles with John K Grande

Ludwika Ogorzelec: Shape in Time

The material of Ludwika Ogorzelec’s sculptures is space itself, and the line of wood, metal or glass is only the contour for the “crystals of space”. Her works are usually created in reference to the context of the cultures and places in which they are presented, most often in situ (in open space, often in architecturally shaped surroundings, in the interiors of exhibition halls of museums and galleries). In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, she discusses her ideas and work.

Chris Booth: Sculpture into Ecology

Chris Booth is a sculptor who works closely with the land, earth forms, and indigenous peoples of the region(s) where he creates his monumental sculptural art works. His way of working emphasizes communication and exchange between indigenous and colonial cultures and the creation of meaningful environmental art works. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses his ideas and work.

NILS-UDO: Towards Nature

NILS-UDO is a German artist from Bavaria who has been creating environmental art since the 1960s when he moved away from painting and the studio in 1972 and began to work with, and in, nature. He began as a painter on traditional surfaces, in Paris, but moved to his home country in Bavaria and started to plant creations, putting them in Nature’s hands to develop, and eventually disappear. As his work became more ephemeral, he introduced photography as part of his art to document and share it. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses his ideas and work.

Thaddeus Holownia: Structures of Place

Thaddeus Holownia is a visual artist, teacher, letterpress printer and publisher. In Holownia’s large-scale photographs, he uses the idea of heightened perception to explore the traces humankind leaves on the landscape. About his work, he echoes Thoreau’s observation, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses his ideas and work.

Patrick Huse: Harvesting Wasteland

Patrick Huse is a Norwegian painter and multi-media artist. He studied landscape art and conceptualism during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. His works incorporate techniques as painting, drawing, photograph, video, wall based text material and objects. In the early 1990’s he started a project titled Rethinking Landscape, a trilogy consisting of the three parts: ‘Nordic Landscape’, ‘RIFT’ and ‘Penetration’. The traditional landscape art still plays a role as an artistic reference, but through a series of exhibitions from the mid-1990’s and later, he has challenged landscape art in a way which makes his project unique. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses his ideas and work.

Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway – Foghorn Requiem

Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway have worked together since the early 1990’s, developing large scale performances, multimedia installations and site-specific work, usually in collaboration with organizations and experts across many specialized fields. In 2013 they developed ‘Foghorn Requiem’, a requiem for disappearing sound, performed by the Souter Lighthouse foghorn, three brass bands and fifty ships out in the North Sea. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, they discuss this work as well as their other projects.

Buster Simpson – Proto-Habitat Design Sculpture

Seattle artist Buster Simpson is a pioneer in the field of urban environmentalism and art in public spaces. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, Simpson has been dedicated to working in the public realm; his method is grounded in a farsighted contract between the artist and where he lives. His career parallels the rise of public art in the Pacific Northwest and he has played a crucial role in establishing Seattle as a significant center for community-minded artistic practice. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses his ideas and work.

Paul Walde: Requiem for a Glacier

Paul Walde is an artist, composer, and curator. Walde’s body of work suggests unexpected interconnections between landscape, identity, and technology. In 2013, he completed ‘Requiem for a Glacier’, a site-specific sound performance featuring a fifty-five-piece choir and orchestra live on the Farnham Glacier in the Purcell Mountains. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses this work as well as his other projects.

Jason deCaires Taylor’s Underwater BioCulture Sculpture at the Museo Atlantico, Lanzarote Island

A leading figure in art and ecology, John K. Grande is author of a range of books that include ‘Balance: Art and Nature’ and ‘Art Space Ecology’. In this article he discusses the work of sculptor and environmentalist, Jason deCaires Taylor, in particular his major project Museo Atlantico, a collection over 300 submerged sculptures and architectural forms in Lanzarote, Spain, the first of its kind in European waters. His pioneering public art projects are not only examples of successful marine conservation, but works of art that seek to encourage environmental awareness, instigate social change and lead us to appreciate the breathtaking natural beauty of the underwater world.