Zane Turner

Zane, an identical twin, was born in Toronto in 1982 to Canadian and Jamaican parents. In 2002, he undertook a Bachelor of Fine Arts, studying under Montreal artists Susan G. Scott and Marion Wagschal. In his fourth year, he received an honourable mention in the Kingston Prize for Contemporary Canadian Portraiture for his hyper-realistic Painting, Mark Ainslie. In June 2006, he received his Bachelors Degree in painting and drawing, and is now working primarily with encaustic wax, creating hyper-realistic portraits. While Zane continues to work with portraiture, he has also branched off into a new series of representational façades called Rusty Boat Side. Since 2008, Zane lives and works in Mont-St-Hilaire, Quebec.

PORTRAIT SERIES:
Zane Turner’s portrait series uses the face as a fundamental canvas for communicating expression. Turner states in his artists statement: "To paint the faces is a common practice for the majority of native-born people of the world. Used in various rituals, it awakens our inner power, intensifies the emotions, and transcends our nature. Now we paint our faces for any spectacle, to project an image of ourselves that is larger than life. To change, to express ourselves, and to impress: Sometimes to control our image, sometimes to demolish it. Applied impromptu, the painting on the face denudes the subject in a lighthearted way. The mask of oozing paint thins the social varnish. Seriousness gives way to self-mockery. The subject has nothing left to lose, their image is deconstructed. These portraits are the tribal masks of today’s fashionable fellow. They pull toward the constant need to control our appearance and remind us of what it is like to express our humanity." Turner’s works drip with modern rhetoric; they are the tribal masks of today’s fashionable fellow. At the soul of these portraits shouts an empirical motivation to augment our appearance and express ourselves with passion.

RUSTY BOAT SIDES:
Turner’s Rusty Boat Side series is a beautiful dance between the wooden structure, the painted surface and the elements that which float between reality and the realm of the abstract. The compositions tell of someone who has experienced adventure and long departures and many awaited returns. These pieces denote thoughts of subsistence, endurance, privilege, transportation and freedom. Each untold story is inspired by imagery from Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, as well as from personal memories of boats swaying while moored to beach watersides. These deteriorating façades pay homage to time passing and comment on our society that promotes eternal youth. The Rusty Boat Sides series is a body of work that significantly represents ways in which to tell the story of life.