From our studio to your wall →

To a certain extent, over the past year, we were all living through similar experiences. Believe me, I did not anticipate putting together this online sale and reach out to you for a second time.

But here we are. From next week on we will be allowed again to sit outside our favorite cafes and bars and enjoy a drink in the sun together with our friends. Nobody knows how long this will last. Let’s hope for the best.

Nevertheless, Covid has entered our lives, more than we would like. I had a show barely anyone has seen (the Kunsthalle was closed most of the time) and Ishita spent way too many hours with Zoom calls, including for a prestigious residency in the US she was unable to attend.

Editioned prints, framed prints, drawings, paintings, and mixed media works are for sale. Please check out the listings.

This year Ishita and I decided to organize this sale together. Please do have a look at the pieces we both selected from our shelves and drawers to make them visible for you. Online sales are not our usual business and there is no shopping basket involved! If you are interested in purchasing one of our artworks, please do get in touch with us, talk to either Ishita or me, ask questions about shipping and payment options or make any suggestions.

In the meantime, we hope everyone is well and send best wishes to all of you,

Ishita Chakraborty and Thomas Kern

Soyons tous quelqu'un d'autre - Let's all be someone else

It is more than a year ago when I announced the decision by the Office for Culture of the Canton Fribourg to award me with their bi-annual Photographic Research of Fribourg. That’s a long time for a project “right in front of your doorstep” which is also not quite true, for each meeting, portrait or encounter involved 3 hours of a train ride or drive with the car. Since my submitted project left almost everything open, apart from the fact, that I wanted to meet people, in their homes and photograph them, it became kind of endless - and the appearance of Covid-19 didn’t make it easier. For some months the project came to a complete standstill.

Selecting and sequencing the portraits with the book designers of atlasstudio.ch in Zürich.

Photocopying, shuffling, cutting, glueing - making a first dummy.

The project is an experiment. There is no subject other than to meet random people, they should not represent anything else than who they are. That sounds simple and easy - isn’t that like every portrait we are looking at? Needless to say, I don’t think so. The only clear parameter I had, was the territory of the Canton, the people I was going to meet had to be inside it’s boundaries. How would I find these people? After all, these days things have become complicated. Simply chatting up someone in front of the local grocery store, asking if it is fine to accompany him or her to their home, where we then would have a drink, sit down and do the portrait - I don’t think so.

The photography part ist done. I made about 60 portraits over the course of a year. Some of them did not make it into the book and the selection for the exhibition will be even tighter.

Also, for most of the year I kept working on a series of drawing, collages and objects. They are conceptually connected to the photographs - visualizing aspects of my work which is not reflected in the portraits itself. Questions of the territory, the landscape and the relationship of the individual and within a society.

The show is scheduled to open on Friday 20 November 2020 at the Fri-Art Kunsthalle in Fribourg

“The drawings are an attempt to create an environment in which the portraits are placed. They visualize questions around territory, the landscape and the relationship of the individual within society.”

Die letzten Tage des Kunstmarkts →

“Zur Abwechslung einige Bilder von Maskierten” war der Titel meines letzten Blogeintrags vom 27. Februar 2020. Es sieht ganz so aus, als hätte die Realität diese Aussage eingeholt. Wer hätte das gedacht? Maskierte Menschen halten Einzug in unseren Alltag, draussen auf der Strasse, im Supermarkt und bald wohl auch in Restaurants und Schulen.

Vor einigen Tagen stand ich bei mir im Atelier und sah mich durch einen Teil meiner Arbeiten im Archiv und Lager. Nach einer Weile sagte ich mir etwas trotzig – hier liegt mein Sparguthaben! Hier ist meine Sammlung von Abzügen, gerahmten Fotografien von vergangenen Ausstellungen, Bildern und Mixed-Media Arbeiten, sorgfältig eingepackt und gestapelt warten sie darauf, ein neues zu Hause zu finden, einen Ort, an dem sie gesehen und geschätzt werden - der hoffentlich pandemische Verkauf ist eröffnet.

Nummerierte Abzüge, gerahmte Fotografien, Acryl auf Papier und Mixed Media Arbeiten stehen zum Verkauf aus meinen Atelierbeständen.

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Ich wende mich an Sie und dich, weil ihr alle Teil seid der Gruppe von Freunden, Menschen und Institutionen, die in der Vergangenheit Fotografien, Abzüge und Werke von mir gekauft haben. Ich hoffe ihr seid mit diesen Bildern nach wie vor glücklich und aus ihnen seien Freunde geworden, die euch durch den Alltag begleiten. Bei einigen von euch ist das so, das weiss ich und freut mich.

Nummerierte Abzüge, gerahmte Fotografien, Acryl auf Papier und Mixed Media Arbeiten stehen zum Verkauf aus meinen Atelierbeständen.

Bitte schaut euch die zum Verkauf stehenden Bilder an. Nehmt euch ruhig ein wenig Zeit und verteilt den Link weiter an eure Freunde und Bekannte, die sich ebenfalls dafür interessieren könnten. Es geht mir nicht um den Versuch ein Online-Shoppingerlebnis einzuführen, die Bilder sind da zum Anfassen und Aufhängen und auch ich empfange sonst gerne BesucherInnen im Atelier.  Bei Interesse und Fragen, bitte meldet euch, auch wegen Transport und Fragen der Zahlungsmodalitäten oder sonstigen Tips, ihr findet mich hier.

In der Zwischenzeit wünsche ich euch alles Gute, Thomas Kern

The Last Days of the Art Market →

“Some masked people for a change” was the title of my last blog entry on 27 February 2020. Reality has certainly caught up with it. Who would have thought that masked people will become a commonplace on our streets, in supermarkets and soon maybe restaurants and schools too?

I was in my studio the other day looking through some of my artwork at my storage and thought in defiance – these are my savings. My collection of prints, framed photographs from past shows, paintings, and mixed media works. Here they are, nicely packed and stacked away, waiting to find a new home, a place where they can be seen and appreciated - the launch of a pandemic art sale!

Edition prints, framed prints, paintings and mixed media works are for sale. Check out the listings.

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I am reaching out to you because you are among the friends, people, and institutions who have bought some of my photographs, prints or paintings in the past. I hope you are all happy with those images, they have become your companions of everyday life, I know some of you are.

Please have a look at the pieces I selected and took from my shelves to make them visible for you. Take your time, feel free to share this page with friends and people you think might be interested. It is not an online shopping experience. It involves the real world. If you are interested in my work, please get in touch, talk to me, ask questions on shipping and payment options or make any suggestions.

In the meantime, my best wishes to all of you, Thomas Kern

https://www.thomaskern.ch/covid19-studio-sale

Edition prints, framed prints, paintings and mixed media works are for sale. Check out the listings.