Christian Burchard

Burchard originally studied Fine Art and then followed a career as a furniture maker, which developed into turning wood for the creative freedom it offered. The artist works from his Cold Mountain studio in Southern Oregon using local Pacific Madrone Burl, which grows along the Northwest Coast. He exploits the wood's natural properties, particularly its’ wide range of beautiful colour and brittle textures.

Burchard comments that turning wood while green and wet 'is a real pleasure to cut and handle'. Once turned, he steps back and relinquishes control, letting the wood find its own shape as it dries. The resulting organic surfaces undulate unevenly to create an anthropomorphic quality, so each piece has its own personal character. By grouping pieces together, Burchard develops a familial quality to the works, as each piece nods or leans into the group, to tell a particular story, sometimes acting as metaphors for the people he knows.

Burchard lives and works in Oregon, U.S.A. An established International woodturner, the artist has work in numerous permanent collections, including Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Detroit Art Museum, Detroit; University Of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; Royal Cultural Center, Jedda, Saudi Arabia; Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY; American Decorative Arts at Yale University, New Haven, CT; Museum for Contemporary Art, Honolulu, HI and Stanford University Art Gallery, Palo Alto, CA.

Christian Burchard's e-catalogue of available works including prices