Tanner Lawley

Dallas area, Texas

Contemporary artist Tanner Lawley creates from a place of love, abundance, faith, and compassion for others.

The Artist

The heart, not as anatomy, but as love itself.

Since beginning his professional practice in 2008, he has produced thousands of original works now held in public collections in Austin, Dallas, and New York, as well as private collections throughout the United States and internationally. In 2010, Art Business News named him one of the Top 50 Artists to Watch; internationally recognized for his iconic heart paintings, he received the Best New Exhibitor Award at ArtExpo New York in 2014, and has exhibited at international art fairs including New York, Miami, Dallas, Aspen, Scottsdale, and Brussels.

At the core of his work is the symbol of the heart — not shown as anatomy, but as a powerful expression of love itself; his goal is to draw the emotion of love out of the viewer so the experience of the artwork becomes a reflection of love. These principles connect his work to Reflectionism, the movement's belief that an artist's constructive intention can be preserved within the physical substance of a painting and experienced by the viewer.

As a performance painter, he extends that experience by creating before live audiences, transforming the act of painting into a shared encounter between artist, artwork, and viewer. He lives and works in the Dallas area with his wife, D'Anne, and their three daughters.

Signature Moments

At a Glance

Selected Works

On Display at the Exhibition

Four works on display at the Inaugural Reflectionist Exhibition, September 12, 2026, Dallas.

The Movement

On Reflectionism

Reflectionism is a contemporary art movement founded by JD Miller in Dallas in 2001. Its central proposition is that the constructive intentions of the artist — joy, gratitude, love, wonder, inspiration — are preserved within the physical substance of a dimensional oil painting and can be experienced by anyone who stands before it. Nine founding artists, each working in three-dimensional oil, carry this philosophy forward in their individual voices.

The Movement

Related Artists

Experience the Movement

September 12, 2026. Samuel Lynne Galleries, Dallas.