Metal

Tress Turner is a self-taught artist from New Orleans whose artwork is a kaleidoscope of mixed media, found objects and family history embedded in rusted metal and scraps melded into a visual translation of the Southern Gothic. Her pieces often combine welding, woodworking, acrylic painting and found objects in a raw style more closely aligned with the folk art and outsider art movements than the products of formal training and mass production. Each piece is a one-off visceral creation.

Turner’s works preserve and physically transform memories by giving new life to found objects. Catholic iconography mixes with folk traditions tied together with Latin phrases and French Quarter life, all distilled through wood, metal, and barbed wire. Her mixed media pieces range from brutally honest and simple to whimsical and ornate. An array of colors and textures, intricate with personal meaning, leaves the door open for interactive viewer interpretation and experience. This underlying interactive component can engage a smile, provoke a forgotten memory, confront tradition or question religious beliefs, and is often peppered with a spicy, irreverent sense of humor.