I’m interested in transmission of history and malleability of memory. I have been thinking how history, even events prior to one’s own birth informs our lives and shapes who we are. How we live, how we understand the world we live in and how all this affects the work one creates. From early exploration of my parents’ experiences as Holocaust survivors, to memorial piece for the victims of September 11th, to my recent politically inspired work, I continue my investigation into political and cultural markers that identify our time. My approach lies in constructing imagery by gathering and juxtaposing disparate elements to arrive at the final piece. I think of myself as a hunter/gatherer, collecting visual details to construct an altered reality, where the line between life and death blurs and it’s up to us to nurture our dreams.
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Tatana Kellner was born in Czechoslovakia and studied painting at the University of Toledo (BA) and printmaking and photography at Rochester Institute of Technology (MFA). She 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 10 limited edition artists’ books. Tatana has exhibited her work in USA and Canada and has had over 20 solo exhibitions. Recently her work has been featured at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art in Fort Collins, Co, Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY, Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA and Creative Concepts in Beacon, NY, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY and District Fine Arts Gallery, Washington, DC. In 2005 Tatana has received the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. She 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 and Ragdale Foundation.
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