As the desert heat rises and summer takes full bloom, Melissa Morgan Fine Art invites you to experience the cool serenity and emotional depth of Eric Zener’s iconic water-inspired artworks — now available at the gallery.

Known for his luminous, hyperrealistic paintings of figures submerged in water, Zener captures the sensory beauty and symbolic power of immersion. His works explore transformation, solitude, and renewal — often portraying subjects floating, diving, or suspended just beneath the surface, bathed in refracted light.

In the stillness of water, Zener offers a sense of both escape and awakening — each piece is a celebration of water as a metaphor: for life, for change, for letting go.

Zener has been painting for over 30 years and best known for his photorealist paintings. A self-taught artist, Zener manipulates light to create psychologically charged atmospheres for his subjects, who never reveal their faces but nonetheless appear vulnerable while immersed in water.

Zener has chosen to use oil paints in his works for the finish, translucency, and the way that they portray light and reflections. Oil paint allows for rich, vibrant colors and a wide range of textures, making it the ideal medium for capturing the luminous quality of water and light that is central to his work. With a slow drying time, Zener has the ability to blend and layer colors to create depth and detail in his paintings, allowing him to achieve the lifelike details that are characteristic of his style.

For two decades Zener has also created a body of mixed media work featuring his photography, silver leaf, and hand embellished acrylic ink on panel with resin. These luminescent works transform with the variation of light and are uniquely one-of-a-kind.

Zener works uses a process that combines layering photographs that have been printed on gold or silver leafed panels before applying layers of paint and resin. The result is a composition in which the idea of floating is not only depicted, but presented, each layer of a piece separating the foreground and background, allowing for a vacillation between them.

Melissa Morgan Fine Art is pleased to now offer a selection of prints by Eric Zener, providing an accessible entry point to the artist’s celebrated imagery.

Whether you're collecting or simply seeking inspiration, we welcome you to visit Melissa Morgan Fine Art to view these extraordinary works in person. Step into the stillness. Float into summer.

Contact us for availability, private viewings, or information on commissioned works.