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Our special series about our esteemed judges for The Art of Xero Error Competition continues with Kenneth R. Turner. While we get ready to announce the winners for the competition, let us acquaint you with these fantastic and notable personalities who so graciously accepted to take time out of their busy schedules to support our project.

Biography | Kenneth Richard Turner

Kenneth Richard Turner has been a professional artist for over 35 years and including his student years has been painting for 50 years. His paintings hang in collections around the world. One of his gifts is his ability to work with people realizing the painting that they have envisioned a rare trait for a fine artist. He is best known for his large, multi-figure canvases of historical subjects. These paintings combine his mastery as a portrait painter, landscape artist, and painter of horses and manipulator of light. Ken is comfortable with a wide range of subject matter. The majority of his time is spent filling commissions to an international clientele.

Born July 4,1948, Ken began formal training at age 11 with Harry Worthman, receiving the Westbury High School art Scholarship Award in 1966 and the Conservative Arts Scholarship Award in 1968-71. He was the first undergraduate in the history of the University of Houston to have a sculpture erected on campus. After graduating with a BFA, he taught figure sculpture at UoH in 1972 and painting for the Art League of Houston in 1973-74. His paintings were part of an exhibition of young American artists in Geneva Switzerland in 1975. In 1974 he became the protégé of the Hungarian Master Lajos Markos who completed his training and helped launch his career.

In 1976 Florence and Ali Al-Abssi of the Ishtar Gate Gallery, the Galleria, Houston Texas began to purchase his paintings calling him “a serious artist of immense talent”. “Sagoot Al Riyad”, a large painting commissioned in 1985 by the ruling family of Saudi Arabia hangs in the Palace where the King and senior members of the Saud family meet weekly. It is important to note that even the galleries were willing to purchase all of his artistic endeavors. In the mid-70’s and early 80’s these include: Herzog Gallery, First State Bank of Kilgore, Galerie Barbizon, Brass Door Gallery, and of course, Ishtar Gate Gallery.

“Decision at the Alamo” painted in 1986, was displayed in the Texas State Capital for the Sesquicentennial and is now in the collection of K.S. [Bud] Adams owner of the Tennessee Titans. Rotisserie for Beef and Bird purchased “The Light of Freedom” in 1987 to begin their collection of 15 original Turners. He received official recognition from the mayor and city council of Houston in 1994 for his painting “Union de Dos Culturas” commissioned by Benito Albarran of Guadalajara, Mexico. Reproductions of his painting “Out of the Ashes’, commissioned by Randy Dean in 2001, hang in the George H. Bush Presidential Library, the office of the Governor of New York, NYPD, FDNY, and Port Authority Police Department New York and New Jersey Headquarters.