Johnny Turner
Living and working in Wellington, Johnny Turner sculpts from hard volcanic and metamorphic rock. Created over thousands of years from massive pressure and resultant heat, these stones have been transformed from a soft substance into another phenomenally durable material of heightened purity.
Turner was born in Chirstchurch in 1957, has travelled extensively and exhibited widely. He is largely self-taught and draws inspiration from a range of diverse sources, from Greek history, classical mythology, indigenous culture and the Japanese aesthetic. Creating works which appear perfectly poised in space or emerging upwards from the earth, Turner often gives classical forms a contemporary interpretation, referencing history, memory and ancestral provenance within each work.
A passion and instinct for his chosen medium, drives Turner to create meticulously realised works of a monumental weight and scale. The sleekness and precise balance of these works makes them undeniably man-made, but the smooth, curving forms and tactile surfaces refer to an ideal organic perfection – the unquestionable beauty found in natural forms.
“I was taught how to listen to the sound of a stone. It’s a magic feeling…when I find it, I have to stay with it and give it the love and care it deserves.”
Living and working in Wellington, Johnny Turner sculpts from hard volcanic and metamorphic rock.
