Texas-based artist Rod Penner is known for his photo-informed paintings of small-town homes, storefronts, diners, laundromats, and quiet roadside structures. He is drawn to places built to serve people that now feel slightly out of sync with use—where belief, routine, and time no longer fully align. His work transforms overlooked streets and interiors into restrained meditations on light, erosion, and cultural memory.
Penner’s work displays a profound and genuine sense of American culture.
—John Seed
Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
Video and photography: Jigal Fichtner
Courtesy: Museum Frieder Burda
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1965 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Rod Penner studied at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (1982–83) and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1986. His first solo exhibition was held at Kauffman Galleries in Houston, Texas. He is represented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & COLLECTIONS
Penner’s work has been featured in major international exhibitions, including Hyperrealism: 50 Years of Painting(Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and Photorealism: 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Painting, which traveled to museums in Estonia, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and England. His paintings are held in numerous public and private collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Parrish Art Museum, Tampa Museum of Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Flint Institute of Arts.
PERSONAL
Rod lives and works with his wife, Debbie, in the Texas Hill Country. They have five children and four grandchildren.