Johnny Turner

Wellington artist Johnny Turner sculpts from hard volcanic and metamorphic rock. Created over thousands of years from massive pressure and resultant heat, the formation of metamorphic rocks sees an initially soft stone is transformed into another more refined form, of heightened purity and a phenomenally durable essential nature. Turner sees this transformation as being of powerful significance to his work and in the undertaking of artists to transform their raw materials into enduring objects.

Living and working in his Wellington studio, Turner has been mentored by sculptors he admires but is otherwise largely self-taught. Inspiration arises from the artist's personal beginnings, the passage of time and the reuse of materials drawn from deep within the earth as well as an ongoing fascination and research into sources as diverse as classical history, indiginous mythology and the Japanese aesthetic.