2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006

Tommy Zen, Painter – Artistic Itinerary

Inspired by the tradition of shapes and forms, traveling from one an ancient culture to the next, Tommy Zen treats the lining of ceramics as if it were a canvas. The artist thus combines both media by painting on a metallic sheet affixed to the surface of the vessel. What further personalises Tommy Zen is his interest in the treatment of organic matter, which is directly linked to his surroundings and living environments: urban and rural.

Based in Montreal for 25 years, Tommy Zen has undergone an urban influence which merged with his natural instincts. In March 2006, he created his first painting and enjoyed a new freedom. Alone with the canvas, he finds intimacy in the act of creation and reconnects with its profound expression. Removed from tridimensional constraints, the painter takes advantage of the large formats that he loves. By implementing the same technique for ceramics on a canvas, either through affixing metal sheets of silver or bronze, or through oil pigments and varnish, he creates depth and perspective that varies according to light intensity. The painter is revealed as a great colourist with the infinite complexity of his oil pigments...

With the brush stroke as his outlet, the artist’s tridimensional research brings the essence of gesture back to a perspective, a vanishing point and an eclectic construction. It’s in this spirit that five years later, collections of paintings follow each other and offer the discerning eye a unique sensation: the iridescent light of metal and the various depths mixed in texture.

As a prolific artist, Tommy Zen can work on ten paintings simultaneously. However, he tends to change this practice so as to further deepen a subject from start to end, and so as to interrupt neither story nor purpose, and thus express the present moment with more intensity.