Tatana Kellner

I was born in Czechoslovakia and studied painting at the University of Toledo (BA) and printmaking at Rochester Institute of Technology (MFA). I'm an artist and the founding member and Artistic Director of Womens Studio Workshop, an artists workspace in Rosendale, NY.

Growing up in communist Czechoslovakia, as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I learned to mistrust authority and question official doctrines. The current political landscape with the erosion of civil liberties, the misinformation fed to us by our leaders and the manipulation of facts by the media has motivated me to refocus my artistic concerns from exploring my personal history, albeit political, to taking a direct stance on contemporary politics.
I use media, especially the newspaper, as my primary source material. The images and text fragments are processed in a way that parallels political maneuvering (deal making). My work is tactile. Layers of inky marks form the images. The inherent messiness references political corruption, loss of innocence, and encapsulates a specific moment in time.

I have exhibited my work in USA and Canada and have had over 25 solo exhibitions. My 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, the Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY, Kean University, Union, NJ, among others

I have received the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant as well as the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Photographers Fund Award from the Center for Photography at Woodstock and Ruth Chenven Foundation Grant.
I have 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.
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