Artists
Dan Turner
Dan Turner
About
Dan Turner is an artist and educator from London, a Romani born in Kent. Dan trained at St Martins School of Art where he completed a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art (Sculpture). He works across media, including sculpture, video and painting.
Dan’s practice explores the interaction between Romani and mainstream culture through themes of commercial interchange in Romani life. He is interested in how human life can be defined and archived through made objects, and how these objects communicate across timelines through a shared ‘material’ culture and articulate that culture to a wider audience.
Using transactional objects which have significance across both cultures, Turner examines how Gypsy, Roma and Traveller cultures meet and interact with the dominant culture. Working with migration maps of Roma diasporas, and using traditional crafts and occupations such as herbalism, peg and wooden flower making, and fortune-telling, Turner re-imagines Roma past, present and future to challenge mainstream culture’s view of Roma identities.
His work Seeds of Healing was shown in FUTUROMA at the Venice Biennale 2019.
Image: Dan Turner, Kipsi. Meadow Arts digital commission 2021.