Christian White – Curator’s Choice Spring 2019

Award-winning and internationally-renowned, Christian White is considered the leading Argillite carver on the westcoast.  Highly influential to other artists, he is respected for his efforts in establishing an apprenticeship program and leading the future direction of Haida art.

“The woodcarving is more about giving back to the culture and being with my friends and apprentices, creating the monumental poles and also dancing the masks and other objects, the headdresses, the rattles, creating bentwood boxes.”

“From the time that I picked up those first tools, I would even dream about pieces that I was working on. I would think of a piece that I was creating one day and by the time I was going to sleep I would be thinking about the next cuts that I was going to make on the piece.  So it was something that I was driven to do. It was a whole lifestyle being an artist, a carver, an argillite carver; maybe it wasn’t a nine-to-five lifestyle, it was probably more like a noon-to-midnight lifestyle. When I first started sometimes I would work and I would work well into the night, sometimes until three of our in the morning.”

” I try to make pieces strong, determined. I have built the foundation of my artwork and it is just starting to emerge and now it will be expanding.” – excerpts from ‘Challenging Traditions’ exhibition at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario

Christian’s exceptional artworks have been exhibited in multiple exhibitions at Coastal Peoples Gallery including Haida Masterworks I, II and III.

Explore his online collection here or in person at the gallery.