Dorothy Tanner was born in The Bronx, NY. She studied woodcarving with Chaim Gross and sculpture with Milton Hebald and Aaron Goodleman. She also attended Brooklyn Museum Art School where she met native New Yorker Mel Tanner. They married two years later.

Dorothy Tanner exhibits a lot of optical nerve. While experimenting with a vast array of media in her career as an artist, she has found acrylic to be the most rewarding. It is a material that she may sculpt, paint, sandblast, or bake and shape. Some are wall sculptures, some free-standing or hang from the ceiling, while others are water sculptures. Light is an intrinsic element of the art form. LEDs have been the primary source of lighting the works in recent years.

While each sculpture stands alone as an art expression, Dorothy's interest is to integrate the works into a total environment - installations that express a powerful visual and emotional sensibility.

Dorothy Tanner and Mel Tanner began their luminal art in the 1960s, adding the elements of live projection and music to create a multi-sensory experience they called Lumonics. Since the passing of Mel Tanner in 1993, Dorothy collaborates with long-time associate, Marc Billard, creating electronic music and video and continuing to build the Lumonics experience.

Front projection wall of Lumonics Theatre, 2005
Photo by Callie Zirkle, Eastsider
© Forum Publishing Group

Selections From An Extensive Collection
includes recent sculptures with LED lighting
Click on photos below to enlarge

Space Flower
Acrylic Sculpture, LED lighted
25"T x 19"W x 17"D
2008

Merlin's Wand
Acrylic Sculpture, LED lighted
19"T x 10"W x 3"D
2007

Serendipity
Acrylic Sculpture, LED lighted
26"T x 18"W x 4"D
2007

The X Factor Wall Sculpture
Mixed Media, LED lighted
30"T x 33"W x 7"D
2005

Collage Wall Sculpture
Mixed Media, LED lighted
27"T x 32"W x 6.5"D
2007

Rocket
Acrylic Sculpture
externally lighted with LEDs
43"T x 44"W x 32"D
2004

..........
Elation
Acrylic Sculpture, LED lighted
36"T x 30"W x 27"D ....
2005..