Tanta DeStaffany Pennington

Artist Biography 

Tanta DeStaffany Pennington is based in Victoria BC Canada and is a Fine Arts Diploma and Independent Studio Program graduate from theVancouver Island School of Art. Tanta has exhibited work at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria International Airport, The Victoria Conference Centre, among other local galleries. Tanta has shown internationally, participating in the International 2011 Florence Biennale. Her work is featured in private collections in Western Canada, Hawaii, California, and Italy. Tanta’s practice combines contemporary ideas with traditional methods of execution such as painting and drawing to create modern, innovative pieces. Tanta is currently focused on exploring a range of scales and formats including painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Statement of Art Practice

My art examines a world composed of fragments of geometry, architecture and fantasy. Through unconscious acts of art making I create abstract maps that connect my internal conversations and memories. Creating and charting these conversations allows me to inspect my relationship with form, movement and space. Whether I am drawing, painting, cutting or assembling mixed media, I am able to create a density in the work that pulls the viewer into the unexpected sculptural spaces hovering between the real or imagined two- and three-dimensional world. Trusting materials and my ability, reshaping space becomes my method for navigating the blurry terrain between illusion and imposed order, the concrete and the imaginary, the known and the unknown. This design conjuring allows me to refine, edit and apply my own sense of wonder in each new work as I explore the boundaries linking my art and the everyday.