Thomas Kellner: Half-timbered houses of the Siegen industrial area today
New York City. Thomas Kellner won the competition for a gallery representation at the Klompching Gallery in New York with his half-timbered houses from the Siegerland. New York is one of the most important centers for art galleries in the world. It his home to the biggest concentration of galleries with more than 1500 venues displaying various work of art from different background every day. Some of these galleries organize competitions to expose new arts from around the world.
The Klompching gallery in New York
The Klompching gallery is one of those art galleries located in New York. Established in Dumbo, Brooklyn in September 2007 by Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching, two successful photograph and curators, it has today established itself as a gallery with an exceptional agenda of artists representing remarkable examples of contemporary photography. Some of its exhibitions are reviewed in major newspaper such as the New Yorker or the Wall Street Journal. As a member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), they exhibit at the New York Photography Show each year. The gallery has built a solid reputation by exposing new artists and advising on the acquisition of fine art photography.
The FRESH Annual Photography Exhibition
The FRESH Annual Photography Exhibition was created in 2011 by Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching and is presented by the Klompching Gallery in New York City. The finalists can either win the Rhonda Wilson Award, a publication of their work as a Klompching Edition, a People`s Choice Award, or a one-year contract with the gallery. In a group of 20 finalists, only 5 of them are chosen to be curated in the physical exhibition in New York Gallery, all twenty of them are presented in an online exhibition. The winner of the People’s Choice Award is determined via the Instagram page of the gallery. The works of the artists are posted on the page and the one that generates the most likes is declared winner of the competition. Thomas Kellner, with the generous support of his fans, the region and even by the local soccer club, Sportfreunde Siegen, almost won the People`s Choice Award. However shortly before the end he was overtaken by Ingrid Weyland. For this contest, Thomas Kellner presented photographs of half-timbered houses centered around the Siegerland region in Germany.
The Siegerland half-timbered houses
The half-timbered houses located around Siegen from Thomas Kellner’s series: “Half-timbered houses of the Siegen industrial area today”, are timeless images of the cultures and society in the Siegerland. These fine art photographs are an allusion to the work of the two internationally well-known photographer Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also photographed those half-timbered houses 50 years ago. They had a very prolific artistic career and are internationally recognized for their work. At the time, they identified themselves as “archeologists of industrial architecture”. In 2021 Thomas Kellner carried their legacy in a series of 19 architectural photographs of half-timber houses in their current states. Hinting at these photographs from the Bechers doesn’t stop the artist from giving them its own signature and as Dr. Andrea Gnam put it, to play "With the transformation into black and white, the shadowing, the focus on details that remain in color, the dreamy blur in the background", all of this make his photographs appear as independent but also as parallel artworks from their original inspirations.
Thomas Kellner
Thomas kellner, born 1966 in Bonn is a fine art photographer and curator based in Siegen Germany. He studied art, sociology, politics and economics at the University of Siegen. Since 2002, he has shown his work in numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and all around the world including two solo shows in New York in 2003 and 2008. Along with his half-timbered houses, Thomas Kellner is also recognized for his cubistic approach of fragmented buildings which he then reassembles into a heterogeneous conglomerate of forms. His work plays with our perception. In his projects he offers entirely new perspectives on subjects he photographs.
With his fine art photography, Thomas Kellner managed to be selected as one of the 5 finalists of this fine art photography competition organized by the Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. His work will now be represented by the gallery for the next 12 months, succeeding once again to gain a foothold in New York, and to establish himself, like the Bechers before him, as an acclaimed fine art photographer to a worldwide audience in New York.
How to contact the gallery
Wednesday–Saturday: 11am–6pm
89 Water Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Telephone: +1 212 796 2070
Email: info@klompching.com
