BIOGRAPHY:
TOMMY ZEN
Ceramicist and Ethnologist
A Canadian of Venetian descent, Tommy has been a cabinetmaker for generations. From a young age, he discovered a passion for clay, which led him to fuse the art of furniture gilding with ceramic gilding, thus perpetuating the family tradition in a new way.
From the fusion of countless techniques developed over more than 50 years, pieces emerge whose unfathomable surfaces surpass conventional glazes.
Exploring Tommy Zen's collections is like delving into the origins of humanity. Paying homage to a diversity of ancient civilizations, and taking up to four months to complete a single piece, the artist reinvents forms that are both ancestral and contemporary.
From the Italian Renaissance, he borrows the use of oxidizing agents on bronze or silver leaf; from ancient China, the lacquered varnishes that create depth, where the eye is lost in the iridescence.
Since 1985, Tommy Zen's works have been exhibited and sold to private collectors around the world, notably in Atlanta, the Bahamas, Belgium, South Korea, Israel, Nantes, New York, Miami, Ottawa, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Jamaica, Dallas, and Washington.
