Julie Zener Gallery

Eric Zener has metaphorically created a sanctuary space through his series of artworks that include water, sleep, landscape, and journey.  He is captivated by beauty, love, taking risks, stepping out of comfort zones, and the transformative nature of life in which his body of works depict these metaphorical stages of emotions.

The works have a universal theme in which are psychologically compelling and profoundly intricate.  Zener captures the imagination, explores the unconsciousness, and the never-ending discovery of the human condition in our raw form.

Zener is best known for his paintings with water as a primary element. Water has been the source of a variety of narratives that appeal to many people: spiritual and physical renewal, cleansing one’s soul, taking the plunge and nostalgic memories of play from childhood.  Zener has always been intrigued by our relationship with nature from its transformative qualities to produce so much joy in us to its equally transformative quality of fear and danger. He enjoys exploring this relationship with nature not only through his water paintings, but also through what he categorizes as “Journey’s” as well as “Land”.

The “water series”, is free form of the water allows us to be our purest form with nature.  Acting as an element to reach mental emancipation and material freedom. Water symbolically provides a spiritual and a physical renewal, and ultimately the cleansing of one’s soul.

The landscape series are inspired by his enthrallment with the immensity, strength, beauty, and sanctuary of nature.  The landscape paintings are an exploration of the human symbiotic relationship with nature and one’s ability to find refuge within the vastness of our natural environment. He is enthralled with the entanglement of branches to show how the free form branches organically grow and coexist with another.  In many of these works, he uses the tranquility of the horizon line as a passageway for light, and hope, to be free from constraints and entanglement.

A San Francisco Bay Area artist since 1994, Zener has exhibited his works both nationally and internationally since 1990 with numerous works in prominent corporate and private collections.

Orphaned from the sanctuary of childhood we are faced with life’s challenges and the consequences of our choices.  The relationship between my figures and their environment acts as a metaphor for personal transformation, refuge and renewal.

My works, charged with hope and renewal, reflects our collective desire for transformation into something ideal.  I create a sense of sanctuary using the metaphor of water, sleep, and landscape.  I believe that even in its ephemeral state, these places lift us and free us from the weight of our world and allowing us to dream.

The images I make transport me to a place of calmness and a sense of connecting to something maternal, and eternal. At times they may be surrendering to something unknown while in others they are basking in the clarity of light. I hope to convey a sense of contentment and poise in either part of the journey, as I believe one state cannot exist without the other.

ERIC ZENER

SELECTED PRESS

Luxury Edition – Eric Zener Artist Profile

Robb Report Eric Zener Artist Profile