Closing: Thomas Kellner: Tango Metropolis May 26, 2006

Thomas Kellner: Tango Metropolis
April 4 - May 27, 2006

Opening: Wednesday, April 12, 6:00PM - 8:00PM

Utilizing a unique combinative technique, Kellner reconstructs the visual language of common architectural sights showing the rigid and austere shape of buildings and monuments in humorous and surprising ways.

The intrigue of Kellner's work lies in its simultaneous participation in avant-gardist and historical photographic discourses while maintaining a level of individuality and aesthetic merit that captures the eye and refuses to let go. Aligned in the trajectory of great historical photomontage and collage artists like George Grosz and Aleksandr Rodchenko as well as participating in the cubistic dialogues of Picasso and Delauney, Kellner draws from extreme and broad influences. His signature and methodical style involves the precise and sequential photographing of individual fragments of his subjects and then printing the contact sheet in the exact order in which the images were shot. In this reversal of the generally exhibited photo work, the contact sheet becomes the finished product and can involve anywhere from 36 to 1,296 exposures, creating a disruptive yet pleasing effect. The Washington Capitol Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben, the Vatican, nothing is safe and nothing is sacred when Kellner turns his deconstructing eye upon a subject. To look upon Stonehenge or the Guggenheim Museum as they articulate quirkily upward in new and pleasurable ways makes them appear less concrete, less stolidly disconnected and lets us rediscover these monuments, as though seeing them for the first time. By paradoxically using photography to reestablish individuality to that which has been disseminated on such a mass scale by photography, Kellner gives voice to the architectural world around him. Rather than their general stern faced detachment, Kellner's monuments smile and laugh and participate in the world around them.

Official Website: http://www.cohenamador.com/