Vonn Sumner

Biography

Vonn Cummings Sumner grew up in Northern California, the son of a picture framer in a family of artists. He attended the University of California at Davis, earning both a bachelor's degree in art and an MFA in painting. While at Davis he worked closely with Wayne Thiebaud, Mike Henderson, and David Hollowell, among others.

Upon graduating, Vonn moved to New York where he painted and worked for galleries and museums, including the Guggenheim Museum. The community of artists Vonn found there, as well as frequent trips to the Metropolitan Museum, was very influential on his development as an artist recently out of school. In the summer of 2002 Vonn moved to the Los Angeles area with his wife Jennifer and their dog Murietta. He currently lives and works in Long Beach.

Throughout this period Vonn developed a highly idiosyncratic style of painting that is both recognizable and enigmatic. Hand made props and hats populate his canvases creating a theater of the absurd... all juxtaposed with the cool emotional distance of the subject pressed into the forefront of the painting.

Vonn has exhibited regularly since 1997, he has shown his work nationally and internationally. In 2003 he was a featured solo artist at the Scope Art Fair in Los Angeles and since then his work is part of significant private international collections. He is a founding member of "Pharmaka," an eclectic group of Los Angeles based painters who, in 2005, built and opened a non-profit exhibition space in downtown L.A. devoted to the advancement of contemporary painting.

Photo by Timothy Norris