Renzo & Tarnowski
Two Man Show
RENZO
Born“I saw what I Dreamed and the Pigment
Ran”
Renzo was born on April 11, 1953 in Martinez, California and
raised in the state’s Bay Area. He has since spent one
year in Brisbane, Queensland Australia, six years in Yelapa,
Jalisco Mexico and nine years in San Diego, California. The
youngest of three brothers, Renzo was raised within a conservative
and strictly religious environment by his father, a retired
Baptist pastor and house painter.
Renzo’s paintings express and communicate his observations
of what he believes to be the basic qualities that separate
humanity from the inanimate objects that surround it. His passion
of Latin America continues to be a catalyst for his work.
Renzo’s images are opaque with transparent overlays to
form composites, ranging from the figurative to abstract expressionism.
In his 39 years of painting, Renzo has experimented with a variety
of techniques and styles. He has always use of water paints,
because of his connection with their unique qualities on the
canvas. Building layer upon layer in a process of construction
and illustrated depth, Renzo depicts metaphors and variables
on relationships, spirituality, intent, and even tribal similes.
His practice of alchemy, use brush strokes and habit of scratching
at the surface of the canvas to produce a primal nature to these
imaginary vehicles help to convey an ever illusive inspiration
through each painting.
With no formal academic education in the fine arts, Renzo began
addressing his artistry as a profession early on in life and
was represented by his first gallery before graduating from
high school. During the same period, he worked as an Editorial
Cartoonist for the local newspaper.
Renzo has shown his work throughout California and is in the
permanent collections of the de Young Museum in San Francisco
and the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. His work is also represented
in the ongoing exhibition for the Kaiser Corporation, as well
as public and commercial galleries in Chicago, Kentucky, Germany
and Mexico.
While painting, he has held various positions within the visual
arts arena including: illustrator, art director, graphic designer
and exhibit designer. He had also worked as an instructor and
the career development administrator at The Art Institute of
California, in San Diego, California where he was responsible
for faculty management, curriculum development and undergraduate
instruction.
Currently Renzo is residing in Southern, California where he
is painting full time,
Renzo’s creations portray a level of tactile skill and
competence that evoke a personal involvement from the viewer.
Glen Tornowski
"Painting that simply reproduces likeness
of subject isn't enough -- I create paintings that express my
emotional response to the beauty of subject."
--Glen Tarnowski,
"Say Something More", The Artist's Magazine, October
1999
From a childhood immersed in the beauty of nature, a youth surrounded
by the classical sense of Renaissance-era European art and architecture,
and a lifetime devoted to art as the highest form of expression,
Glen Tarnowski brings stunning vitality, depth and emotion to
his still-life paintings.
Influenced by an intense formal education in art, pain-staking
study of the works of Old World Masters Rembrandt Van Rijn,
Peter Paul Reubens and Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin,
and ongoing study with contemporary masters David Leffel, Sherrie
McGraw and Dan McCaw, Tarnowski’s use of Chiaroscuro techniques
provide his still-lifes with a vibrant dichotomy of old world
feeling and contemporary realism.
His formal education in oil painting began at the age of eight
when his innate talent for painting and unique perception of
color revealed itself in his first art class. He continued his
formal art education at California Lutheran University and The
Pasadena Art Center College of Design, separated by extensive
self-study in the art capitals of Europe. He later returned
to California Lutheran University to teach painting.
Tarnowski’s talent is recognized by his peers, art associations,
and the art press as well as notable private and corporate art
collectors. Tarnowski paintings are in the permanent collections
of the National Gallery of Victoria, The National Gallery of
Australia, the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn N. Y., the Boca Museum
of Fine Art in Boca Raton, Florida and the Aspen Art Museum
in Colorado. He was the recipient of the 1996 Angel Winner Award,
a finalist in the 1997 Artist Magazine International Competition,
the 1998 Oil Painters of America National Show in Washington,
D.C. and the 1999 Oil Painters of American Regional Show in
Chicago, Illinois. He was also the featured artist in the October
1999 issue of “The Artist’s Magazine”. Tarnowski’s
collector list includes Hollywood celebrities such as Mel Gibson,
media moguls Ted Turner and Aaron Spelling, institutional collectors
such as the Billy Graham Institute and a variety of corporations
including Twentieth Century Fox, TRW, Nordstrom Corporation
and major media networks including NBC and CBS.
