Doyle Trankina (b. 1980, United States) received an MFA in sculpture and MA in illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2022. He has worked in several industries such as film/animation, toy prototyping, art production, exhibits and paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. He participated in many expeditions to Montana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and California's Mohave dessert to prospect for and excavate Mesozoic fossils including large dinosaurs. As a laboratory preparator and artist he contributed to permanent and traveling exhibits, museum collections, popular magazines and science publications such as National Geographic, the PNAS and NESCent, and Royal Society: Proceedings in Biology. Having a strong foundation in figuration and sculptural process he has also worked in the service of several artists including Manfred Muller, Gary Staab, and Charles Ray.
Mr. Trankina's personal practice spans several disciplines including drawing, painting, printmaking and jewelry but his primary focus is representational sculpture. Recognizing the historical legacy of artist materials, he is partial to bronze, stone, wood, ceramic and gypsums as final products while maintaining a largely traditional, hand-crafted approach to art making. With long gestation periods abutted by bursts of activity his process is one that defers formalism to his subjects and what intangible affects they carry. Through material and visual reference, he evokes the historical continuum of sculptural discourse with sociopolitical, physiological, and philosophical themes. To him, sculpting is the means by which one meditates and synthesizes the world that allows complex emotion and thought to find a physical home.
Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Mr. Trankina now resides and works in Duluth, GA where he is a professor of foundation studies and conducts his private practice providing freelance, commission and consulting services.