Trevor Toney

“Wood grain and color inform my compositions. I think of my pieces as a collaboration between the natural qualities of the wood and my artistic expression. ”

In early 2022 he resigned after 16 years as Lead Preparator at the Worcester Art Museum to work as a full-time artist. Trevor has shown his work in both juried and invitational exhibitions including Folding Space, a solo exhibition at the Rochester Museum of Fine Art, Rochester, NH. He has work in several private collections, and has been published in the Lark Books ‘500 series’ for Chairs, Wooden Boxes, and Cabinets.

“Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching has played a huge role in my development. I like its simple practicality and profound vastness.”

From “Meet Trevor Toney”, Interview w. Bold Journey, Feb 2024

Gallery Affiliation

Artist Statement

My objects are all constructed with Baltic birch plywood and then veneered with wood. I do this in a way that allows me to add acrylic color, mediums and finishes to create different sheens, opacities and compositions that interact with the natural color and grain of the veneer. When creating my pieces, I view the wood as a main character and not just a surface for supporting other materials. I use the grain pattern and color to inform the compositions and think of my pieces as a collaboration between the natural qualities of the wood and my artistic expression. I choose pieces of veneer that speak to my sensibilities and often times join veneer in various ways to highlight parts that are especially interesting.

I enjoy the technical process and craftsmanship of constructing the form as well as the process of veneering the completed substrate or “canvas”. The canvases are all fabricated by me and are always deliberate and directly related to the geometric subjects that I paint on them. This relationship varies from something as simple as scale to more complex connections that play with the idea of perspective and illusion. Some of my canvases are more traditional in format (rectangular) and others more sculptural depending on what is needed to best illustrate my idea.

The subject of my paintings are geometric in nature and focus on the ideas of visual perspective and balance. I play with this through formal elements and try to create tension and resolution within a piece. I enjoy pushing the limits of perspective to create tension while using color, texture, movement and shape to balance the discordant image and ultimately create harmony within the piece. I sometimes also use these formal elements to create illusions of dimensionality as well as flatness. This is often achieved by deliberate use of grain direction (or “wrapping” the substrate with a continuous grain pattern) and non-rectangular forms along with shading.

My work is about perception. It’s about how it takes time and investigation to understand. It’s about questioning our initial notion and avoiding the pitfalls of ignorance/arrogance. It’s about meditating on something to practice the art of observation. It’s about not knowing everything. It’s about removing filters from our senses and letting them guide us to a dispassionate realization. And ultimately it’s about learning how to recognize balance and harmony.