Siegen. For Thomas Kellner, the year 2020 is literally a new beginning and started with a change of location onto the Wellersberg. He wistfully looks back at the large rooms in Friedrichstraße, which until recently offered space for his art. 2019 meant farewell to his old studio and a new everyday life, which was now determined by over 600 moving boxes. The consequence of this was the cancellation of his participation in the art summer 2020 and the end of the cooperation with the Siegen Museum for Contemporary Art. In 2000, the city promised Siegen artists an artist's house, which was to be set up in a house made available by the city, but in 2019 only empty words remained of this promise. When Thomas Kellner reviews last year, however, it was more than just a hopeful search for a new home, disappointments about potential financiers and fraudulent real estate agents, as well as those who could be denied and others who so obviously hypocritized that Kellner finally can only be thankful for the calm that has arisen. In addition to all the negativity of the past year, 2019 was particularly characterized by its many successes, which will remain in good memory.
In any case, Kellner did not lack exhibitions and orders last year. His work as a curator, such as his exhibition on industrial photography in ShenYang, was followed by the annual meeting of the ArtCamp he launched, an international artists' meeting in Kellner's studio, and his second curated exhibition on still life photography "Photo Trouvée". This was followed by solo exhibitions in Almeria, Bath, Brasilia, Brühl, Dresden, Eschweiler, Leipzig, Münster, Zaragoza and Siegen, to which several group exhibitions, such as the Borehole Tops at Eisernhardt or his installation from linocuts, which was later purchased for the collection, found connection. In addition, Kellner published his book all shook up last year, based on his exhibition at the American Museum in Bath, and his first bibliography. In 2019, Thomas Kellner artistically dealt with a commission for a Sauerland company, which was a series of the flucticulus works. Four large waves of a total of sixty-four thousand 64,000 10 x 15 mm photos emerged and recently left the studio of the fine art photographer. The first work from this complex of works hung in 2017 at the company Hees Bürowelt in an exhibition by Kellner in collaboration with the art association Siegen. This is how another successful cooperation between business and art came into being. In addition, lots of museums have included Kellner's works in their collection, including the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, the municipal gallery in Bietigheim-Bissingen and the Museu Nacional da República in Brazil. His linocut work, which the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Siegerländer Künstler (Working Group of Artists in Siegen) did not even want to hang up at the beginning, also became part of the municipal art collection in Bietigheim-Bissingen, with a focus on contemporary linocut.
2020 begins for Kellner with extensive exhibition planning for Nümbrecht, Mainz, Offenbach, Havana and a total of five other venues in Spain. Unfortunately, it has not yet been decided whether there will be three exhibitions in China due to the current situation. The exhibition in Johannesburg, which had to be postponed last year due to the move and the resulting search for a studio, is currently not secured. Thomas Kellner looks forward to the further work and the order associated with the move. You won't find a “Gerhard Richter” in the paper bin, because art is going to be shredded by Kellner. Thomas Kellner is currently working on the continuation of his flucticulus works and is looking to 2020 with confidence.
