Tony Lane’s work draws inspiration from art history through the ages: Byzantine altarpieces, Italian frescoes, early Renaissance landscapes, and 17th century Spanish still-life, through to 20th century New Zealand icon, Colin McCahon.

Using traditional methods and materials, Lane explores themes and concepts that occupied his predecessors for centuries: divinity, nature, the supernatural. Contained in heavy, hand-gilded frames, his gessoed and waxed panels proffer an enigmatic combination of religious motifs and everyday objects which pose a delicate balance between ritual and routine. In a review of Practical Metaphysics, Lane’s 2006 exhibition at City Gallery Wellington, Mark Amery comments: “Lane plays with the theatrical staging of the of the devotion, as if letting us in on the secrets behind the magic whilst setting off fireworks for the mind.”

Since graduating from Elam in the 1970s, Lane has held more than 100 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout New Zealand, and exhibited in galleries in New York, London, Barcelona, Seville, and Gstaad. His work is represented in major public collections in New Zealand: Auckland Art Gallery, Dowse Art Museum, Dunedin Art Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa, Manawatu Art Gallery and in the private collections of Sir James Wallace and Dame Jenny Gibbs.

Tony Lane was born in Katikati New Zealand in 1949. He lives in Auckland.

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