Texas-based artist Rod Penner is known for his photo-informed paintings of small-town America. His work transforms overlooked streets and abandoned spaces—remnants of once-prosperous times—into quiet, cinematic meditations on light, time, and memory.
Art historian John Seed writes, “Penner’s work displays a profound and genuine sense of American culture. He is an individual—a classic outsider in many ways—who walks his own road and then paints it with astonishing singularity.”
CHRISTMAS INFLATABLES /SAN SABA, TX 2019
Acrylic on polyester over birch panel
36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
CHRISTMAS INFLATABLES in progress (detail)
Born in 1965 in Vancouver, British Columbia, 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, and has exhibited at Miles McEnery Gallery, O.K. Harris Works of Art, Tampa Museum of Art, Flint Institute of Arts, and the Amarillo Museum of Art. He is represented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York.
Penner’s paintings have 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 work is 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 Flint Institute of Arts.
He lives and works with his wife, Debbie, in the Texas Hill Country. They have five children and four grandchildren.