Artists Registry
kingston NY United States
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Artist's Statement
Statement of Work
My work is rooted in social issues. Growing up in communist Czechoslovakia as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I was told to toe the line in school while at home ‘do not trust them’ was the dictum. This conflicting advice provided a distorted lens on the world.
I create installations, drawings and artist’s books that explore politics, economy, environment and social justice issues. Recent installations have dealt with gun violence, environmental degradation, politics and religion, and the changing media landscape.
My work is rooted in printmaking, I like the graphic nature of the medium as well as its historical role as the medium for the masses. Covered in dust, rubble and layers upon layers of sediments, history and politics are only revealed after lot of digging.
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Tatana Kellner is a visual artist with over 30 solo exhibitions in USA and Canada. In 2002 she devoted a year to produce a large scale installation Requiem for September 11, as a response to the September 11, 2001 attack. This installation, unveiled at the CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, served as a commemorative site of the attack for the city of Buffalo.
Tatana’s work is often about witnessing history and examining current social and political landscape. Recent installations include While You Were Sleeping, Eye Witness, Iron, Into the Woods, Poisoned Well, The Golden Rule and Re-consider.
Tatana’s work has been featured at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Fort Collins, Co, Everson Museum, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz,Center for Photography at Woodstock, University of Albany Museum, CEPA Gallery Buffalo, Davidson College, Dorsky Museum, Kean University, Bucknell University, Neuberger Museum, Kentler International Drawing Center, Islip Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington and the Kunstlerhause Ziegelhutte, Darmstadt, Germany.
In 2008 she received the Puffin Foundation Grant and in 2005 the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. Tatana is also the recipient of two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, two Photographer’s Fund Award from the Center for Photography at Woodstock and Ruth Chenven Foundation Grant. She has been awarded residencies at The MacDowell Colony (three times), Yaddo, Banff Centre for the Arts, Lightwork, Visual Studies Workshop, Saltonstall Art Colony, Millay Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Artpark, Blue Mountain Center, Jentel and Ragdale Foundation.
Tatana is the founding member and Artistic Director of Women’s Studio Workshop, an artists’ workspace in Rosendale, NY. where she is instrumental in helping artists publish and market limited edition artists’ books. Her work encompasses printmaking, photography and installation and she is the author of 11 limited edition artists’ books.