Bryan Nash Gill

Bryan Nash Gill’s large-scale relief prints of tree trunk cross sections, made from irregular sections of dead or damaged trees, are mesmerizing and intricate. “I am kind of like a scientist, or a dendrologist, looking at the inside of a tree that no one has seen,” says Gill. The artist also chops down these trees, which include ash, oak, locust, spruce, willow, pine, and maple, for firewood and constructed his house in Connecticut from wooded timber. Though he has studied sculpture, glassblowing, and ceramics, he is most acclaimed for his “Woodcut” series, which began in 2004. The series’ prints are both beautiful and educational: the artist maintains it is easier to determine the age of a tree from his prints than by counting the rings on the trunk itself.