About
Tom Birkner, American, born 1966, was raised in New Jersey (proudly).
Instead of the art school training typical of precocious talent, he spent his formative years racing BMX, lettering race cars and restoring a 1974 Trans Am. This all changed after seeing a Monet painting in a copy of Modern Maturity, which he regularly swiped from his grandparents for the word puzzles. Immediately mesmerized by all the fun-looking brushwork, he dropped the lettering tools and took a landscape painting class. Unfortunately this was not in Paris, painting along the Seine, but in Newark painting along the Passaic.
Realizing he had no real knowledge whatsoever, he wrangled his way into college where he learned that painting was a little more complicated than he first thought. But he survived historical revisionism and Marxist critical theory and came out stronger for it. Since then he has shown in numerous galleries and exhibitions worldwide, and has maintained studios in Hoboken and Lambertville, NJ. He currently lives and works in Sonoma Valley.
Certain that the real world is far more interesting than his imagination, his work revolves around real things - specifically the real people and places, the real decline and decadence of Post-Industrial America.
