Artist Spotlight: Jon Taner
- jpmaffett
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
As a young boy, Jon Taner thought his love of art would lead him to a career in auto design. He was always drawing and modeling cars. As he grew older that broadened into other ways of creating and eventually a course of study at the Art Students League in New York City. With encouragement from his best friend’s father, who worked in advertising, he aimed his talents toward an advertising career. He noted that perhaps his friend’s dad was less than enthusiastic about pursuing art in this way, but it was a way to make a living.
Jon got his start on Madison Avenue working in what was called the bull pen. He oversaw all the supplies and would prepare and put the finishing touches on client presentations. Building on these skills he learned a lot about framing as well as presentation. Soon, however, he began to feel that the repetitive nature of the advertising business stifled his creativity. So, he leaned heavily into fine art and pursued more education through classes at the Philadelphia College of Art in Pennsylvania and then obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts and Crafts (renamed the California College of the Arts) and his Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University where he was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant for both years of his studies.
Other training included workshops with master printmaker Bernard Greenwald in Stottville and Hudson, New York and course work in fine art appraisal at New York University. Through picture framing sales and as an owner of frame shop and gallery he was able to meet other artists and collectors, broadening, as well as supporting his own art career.
Jon’s distinctive style could be called “abstract realism.” Primarily working in a medium of collage, sometimes his work kicks into the third dimension with found objects. Often his pieces are sprinkled with wit or humor. His work grabs your attention at first and then you end up with a smile on your face or a twinkle in your eye as you look further. As Jon describes, “Painting is as much an act of discovery for me as it is for the viewer. The fulfillment from the act of creating both individual and collective works of art is more satisfying the less predictable my paths, and more surprising my destinations.
I have used shape, color and scale to create a sense of things both strange and familiar; to flavor the known with the unknown; and give to the viewer a sense of discovery amid scenes and objects. This intriguing ambiguity for the viewer is a result of their memory, abstraction of the natural world, surrealist images, and the melding of all these things into a subjective interpretation.”
Taner has been represented by many galleries throughout California, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, and Florida.
Corporations that have added Jon’s work to their art collections include: Intercontinental Hotels, Schering Plough, Nabisco, Peckar and Abramson PA, Dragoco, Passaic County Community College, The Morris Museum, New Jersey, and the former Bergen County Museum of Art. He is also in many private collections throughout the United States.
He currently has work on display at the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, Maine and is participating in two shows this season at Eastport Gallery. He is one of four artists showcased in a show called “The Travelers” from June 21 through July 11 and he will have a solo show entitled “Then and Now” from July 12 through July 25. He recently received third place in the Mixed Media category of the Bangor Arts Society 2025 Open Juried Show for his work Toy Soldier. He is also currently president of that organization.
You can see more of Jon’s work as well as other Eastport Gallery member-artists’ work online at eastportgallery.com. And here are more Artist Spotlights to enjoy.
