Adam Birch is a Cape Town-based sculptor and arborist, whose fascination and experience with timber as a medium is multi-faceted. 

Born in 1976 near Johannesburg, Birch grew up on a large farm in the Cape Winelands, where his love of trees began as a child playing in its forests. He graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in 2000 with a fine art degree majoring in applied graphics, but always dreamed of becoming a full-time sculptor. An apprenticeship as a tree climber led to his own tree surgery company and a ready supply of raw material.

Birch held his first solo exhibition, 'Bifurcation', at Southern Guild in 2018, followed by 'Phoenix' in 2021 and a collaboration with Porky Hefer to create timber sculptures for his 2023 solo, 'Volume IV. Chaos Calamus - Interspecies Reciprocal Altruism'. Southern Guild has presented Birch’s work in numerous group exhibitions and at international fairs such as Design Miami and The Salon Art + Design in New York.  

In 2020, Birch created more than 150 large-scale timber sculptures for Xigera Safari Lodge in the Okavango Delta. Carved from fallen trees on site, the collection of sensuously curved wishbone-shaped seats, pedestals, benches and side tables is the largest project the sculptor has worked on during his 20-year-long career.