Jack Elliott, Arabesco, 15”w x 9”h x 3”d, hand scorched red oak root, 2022

JACK ELLIOTT is an associate professor at Cornell University where he teaches studios on design and conducts research on environmental issues in the built environment. Throughout his academic career, Jack uses the designed object or building, situated in a real-world context, to stimulate discourse, pull technology, and create impactful interventions. 

Jack is originally from central Alberta in western Canada where he grew up close to nature, enjoying canoeing, skiing and hiking. His sculptural endeavors began in his undergraduate years as a minor field of study, working under Peter Hide and Neil Fiertel at the University of Alberta and apprenticing with Gary Jones, a contemporary sculptor working in Edmonton. Jack earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics with a minor in sculpture at the University of Alberta (1978), as well as two Master’s degrees, one in architecture (1991) and one in product design (1993) from the University of Calgary.

Jack’s work has been widely exhibited in the Northeast, from Cleveland, to Philadelphia to New York City, and has garnered significant recognitions, including a 2019 Trustees Award from the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, a 2018 Visiting Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome, a 2017 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, 2015 Atkinson Center for Sustainable Futures Residency Fellowship at Cornell, the 2014 Leon Andrus Award for Best in Show from the Adkins Arboretum, and the 2013 Award of Excellence, also from the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY.

Artist’s Statement:

My sculpture explores relations between trees, people, and our shared biophysical environment. These "Arborworks” come from trees that have been naturally harvested or have been removed because of disease or construction. The sculptures often refer to an environmental issue, such as climate change or the depreciation of nature, but their primary purpose is to move the viewer. I work to expose the hidden beauty of these pieces, through strategic cuts and careful positionings. Every project is different but they are all characterized by juxtapositions of the geometric and the organic; the intentional and the spontaneous; the light and the dark.I am an architect/designer/artist engaged in research on sustainability in the built environment at Cornell University. While much of this research has been in the form of technical investigations, I also have been continuously engaged in “creative scholarship” using wood sculpture as a form of investigation into various human/nature relationships. I use the creative project to stimulate art/design discourse as a form of outreach, as well as a source of aesthetic value.

Greg Page, The Creek Bed, 10” x 20”, mixed media on BFK Rives paper, 2023

GREGORY PAGE has taught at Cornell University, the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Minnesota, Morris, Minnesota.  He has worked as an assistant printer at Landfall Press in Chicago, Illinois and as a Printer at Vermillion Editions Limited in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He has also received training at Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Greg has printed for artist including Shusaku Arakawa, James Rosenquist, Adja Yonkers, Sam Gilliam, Thomas Rose and Steven Sorman and has assisted in printing projects for artist including Claes Oldenburg, Chuck Close, Philip Pearlstein, and many others.  He was also Co-Director of Olive press located in Cornell’s Department of Art in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, which collaborated with artists such as William Wegman, David Story and Richard Bosman to name a few.  He is one of the Co-Founders of the Ink Shop Printmaking Center/Olive Branch Press located in Ithaca, New York.

Artist’s Statement:

My prints and other works explore the natural world and horticultural documentation in the realm of Taxonomy and Identification. In the plant world, allowing the plants to reveal a true expression of themselves reflecting science, location, biodiversity and sustainability.  This is true for other situations in the natural world with a focus on observations and behaviors.