BIOGRAPHY
My name is John Turner
I work in a wide array of mediums including: acrylic, oil stick, enamels, chalkboard paint, 24k gold and silver leaf, hay, dirt, and variey of industrial materials.
You could say that I was destined to pursue a career, in the arts. My father: Dr. Evan H. Turner, http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/evan_turner.html was the director, of a number of major city museums including: The Frick Collection, The Montreal Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. My great uncle Albert Bierstadt, was an American painter, with the Hudson River School:
http://www.albertbierstadt.org/biography.html
Although our styles are entirely different, I still believe that I continually draw from my past, and the environment that I have grown up in, and have been exposed to throughout my life.
The canvases that I produce, are heavily manipulated. I adhere canvas and string onto the existing stretched canvas. Layers of paint, dirt, and/or hay are then applied by hand, and with scrapers, of varying sizes, and shapes. As each new layer of paint is applied, and dries, the process is repeated, both vertically and horizontally, until spider-like lines, and a thick worked surface appears.
Enamel, acrylic, and/or oil stick paints are applied over the existing surface, or over areas once masked off by tape.
The final piece, is a heavily worked landscape, that plays with: light, form, and color, or the lack of color.
Paintings can have one impression when seen from across a room, and quite a different meaning, when viewed up close. (The way sound waves can appear as a thin line, when seen from afar, but when amplified hundreds of times, become cavernous).
I almost always can envision what I am striving to express from a works inception, and do not begin a painting until I can clearly see that image, in my mind, as well as in smaller studies.
Every line, scrape, hand gesture, and layer of paint, is planned and calculated.
Some paintings can have up to 50 coats of paint... While others are stripped down to the bare canvas, revealing only the rawest elements and emotions.
Paintings, should really be viewed in person, to order to truly take in their impact, and depth.
While some refer to my works as: "Mixed Media," I still consider myself
to be an Abstract Artist.
I have works in private collections from: Princeton, New Jersey, to Los Angles, California.
Originally from Montreal, Canada, I now live and work, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Paintings, should really be viewed in person, to order to truly take in their impact, and depth.
CONTACT INFORMATION
John Turner Paintings: http://johnturnerpaintings.com/
InLiquid: http://inliquid.org/complete-artist-list/john-turner/
cell: 267 496-7556
email: johnwturner@me.com
EXHIBIT and GALLERY INFORMATION
2016 SATELLITE ART SHOW, ART BASEL Miami
2016 Solo Exhibit: LARGER WORKS Painted Bride Art Center Philadelphia, PA.
January 12th - March, 2016
2016 InLiquid Benefit v.16 "OCEAN" 2014.
2015 MOCA: Museum of Contemporary Art. San Francisco, California
Summer National Juried Exhibition: "OCEAN" 2014.
(Honorable Mention)
2015 InLiquid Benefit v.15 "WHITE"
2014 InLiquid Benefit v.14 "GOLD"
2014 - Present: InLiquid (Member)
2012 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. (past member)
2012 3rd Street Gallery: 2nd Annual Community Exhibition. Phila, PA.
2011 New Hope Art League, 2011 Juried Art Show. Stockton, NJ.
2011 Artist Round Up: for the Run Free Ranch. Trenton, NJ.
2007 2nd Annual Sherman Mills, Juried Group Show. Phila., PA.
2005 Omega Group Art Show, Wayne, PA.
2004 Toppers Spa, Solo Show. 19th and Rittenhouse Sq., Phila., PA.
EDUCATION
1980-1984 BA Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. (Art, Animation, Film/Photography)