John MacCallum
John MacCallum is a full-time artist based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and a diploma in furniture and cabinet making from the esteemed North Bennet Street School in Boston. His work has been exhibited in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, , Florida, as well as in numerous venues throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. MacCallum is represented by The Leyton Gallery of Fine Art in St. John’s.
“My art carries a certain rawness — a physical honesty rooted in the materials I use,” MacCallum reflects. “I work with robust, uncompromising elements: roof shingles glazed with tar, paint drips hardened by chance, and textures shaped as much by acrylic caulking as by traditional paint. In sculpture, I prefer a deliberate heap of components — more woodpile than polished bronze — a reminder that life is always in motion, always changing. The woodpile, after all, will either be used or waste away, but never consume an obscene amount of oil.”
His creative tools — axe, chisel, paintbrush — are both literal and symbolic, grounding his practice in the physical world while exploring the complexities of human relationships: marriage, family, children, the day-to-day acts of compromise, connection, and truth. MacCallum is drawn to the scale and unruliness of large works, and finds kinship in the unfiltered honesty of children — their language, their art, their gaze. “I’m interested,” he says, “in what children know that we, as adults, cannot fully understand.”
At the heart of MacCallum’s practice is an enduring belief in our innate desire to record and interpret the world around us — visually, subjectively, and through the lens of culture — using the gestures and marks shaped by our own hands and bodies.
His work reimagines and reinterprets the influences that have inspired him — from the raw drama of Caravaggio and Courbet, to early 20th-century Russian modernism, paleolithic cave paintings, and the bold gestures of American abstract expressionism. Layered into this lineage are the materials of the modern age: plastic, silicone, latex, electronic components — the by-products of contemporary life.
Recycled and often overlooked materials — tarps, caulking, discarded clothing, plywood scraps, branches, electric motors, and surplus fasteners — all find their way into MacCallum’s work. These humble, utilitarian fragments, usually handled by tradespeople and labourers like himself, are transformed through paint, moulding, and assembly, pulled from the margins of everyday life into the realm of fine art.
Wood, in particular, plays a central role in his practice. As a living medium, it connects the viewer to nature and origin, offering a quiet counterpoint to the rush of modern life and an invitation to pause and reflect.
Each of MacCallum’s pieces is both a physical object and an idea — something that was once intangible, now brought into the world to be seen, experienced, and enjoyed.
Contact us
Fine Art Interest
In St. John’s, John MacCallum is represented by the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art.
709.722.7177 | leytongallery@gmail.com
6 Clift's - Baird's Cove
St. John's, NL
Canada A1C 6M9
Furniture & Woodworking Interest
MacCallum fine furniture and woodworking creations are unique pieces of art and so are of limited availability. If you are interested in learning about upcoming work, please get in touch though the form here. Thank you for your interest.