Rising: Eric Zener

"Eric Zener’s paintings depict the moment of physical and psychic transformation that occurs when we transcend the limitations of day to day experience. He uses vast expanses of water and sprawling forests as signifiers of this realm of forces greater than ourselves. In his canvases we find divers suspended midair or swimmers plunging into deep blue water. Each of these subjects are consumed by their activity, and we can savor this state of immersion vicariously through Zener’s work."-- Peter Brock.
Zener purposefully reveals little about the individuals, their faces often turned away from us or obscured. With the focus shifted away from their identity, we instead are encouraged to consider our relationship to their experience. The environments he creates play major roles as they are familiar yet foreign to the observer. The forested paintings are strewn with abstracted vines, branches, and leaves creating a fence-like screen, placing the viewer at a point that seems to be impassable. On the contrary, "He (Zener) saw water as a great equalizer—regardless of social standing, age or culture, everyone enjoys the same pleasure and tranquility of the sea," Jessica Lyons, contributing editor of Art Business News, comments. Surrounded by the vastness of the water, the subjects remain powerful and we imagine each to be on the verge of a revelation. Eric Zener provides viewers an opportunity to escape the limitations of life and engage with the transformative capabilities of nature.