TOM LOHNER ART | ROCK CULTURE

Tom Lohner‘s love for the rock culture, as well as his appreciation of the more recent post-industrial music and aesthetics, is more than evident in his work, which is partly dedicated to some of the most popular rockers. With his charming sense of humor, he likes to call himself a US sunshine rocker coming from the old fashioned, historical Austria. His colorful and extremely imaginative work is capable of transforming well-known faces of celebrities into entirely different landscapes of colors and shapes, and because of this playful approach along with the technical excellence, his work has been appreciated and showcased internationally in more than 50 solo and group exhibitions. Tom plays by the motto of Nike: JUST DO IT! …and take the risk!”

Tom Lohner, an energetic and award-winning Austrian artist and rising star in the art world, famous for his imaginative depiction of pop culture, believes that the single most important ingredient in any artistic process is passion.

THE STORY

Since 2015, Tom Lohner is a proud self-employed artist, with his own management, two assistants, and a camera team backing him. All launched with a sold-out solo exhibition in Vienna.
Another highlight was the creation of the stage and brand artwork in fall 2016 for Austria’s famous traditional Almdudler costume ball in Vienna’s city hall, counting 10.000 visitors as well as a nationwide broadcast boosting his career again in his own country. From then on, Almdudler’s brand owner Thomas Klein joined the popular collectors circle.
Artwork for Strongbow / cider (marketing tool).
At the beginning of 2017, Hard Rock Cafe decided
to host the exhibition of Lohner’s latest works titled Art Of Hard Rock by Tom Lohner, where he transformed 13 iconic rock stars into animals; the premiere event was organized by UK’s Rolling Stones management LD Communications and toured throughout other Hard Rock Cafe’s in Europe that year.
Showing his broad diversity, he was invited in February 2017 by Europe’s biggest festival for old music, the ZAMUS Festival to perform a live painting in Cologne’s prestigious Balloni halls, while surrounded by an orchestra on stage in front of 250 selected guests, playing Vivaldi’s fours seasons. Tom’s interpretation of Antonio Vivaldi artwork decorated numerous newspaper title pages and went on TV again.
The same year in which his manager Klaus Billinger and himself opened their Bakerhouse Gallery.
December 2017 Tom created a Santa Clause, which was used commercially for UK’s most prestigious Christmas market, “Greenwich Winter Time.”

2018 begun with a Europe wide release of the Tom Lohner brush series produced and hand made by the largest brush manufacturer Davinci – Defet in Germany and a personality award from the Austrian LGBT community.
Later that year, he was invited to donate an artwork of his to the memorabilia collection of the Hard Rock Cafe Vienna, a painted homage to the famous Austrian band OPUS placed next to Alice Cooper’s guitar. Funny enough only a few months later the same musical artist (Alice Cooper) took his own Tom Lohner portrait back home to the States when they played a show at Burg Clam / Austria.
September that year, Tom created a piece for Austria’s most famous Tennis player Thomas Muster, ex. Rank one of the world players.
End of 2018 two commission pieces for Austria’s biggest folk- and pop stars marked a highlight; one for Andreas Gabalier, another one for Bernhard Speer (of Seiler and Speer). Gabalier commissioned him in 2019 to create a new subject for his stadium tour throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
At the start of 2019, a Tom Lohner painted tram started to run it’s daily schedule through the city of Graz / Austria an entire year long. This project was commissioned by Austria’s largest newspaper, Kronen Zeitung, who used parts of the art elements for their new campaign, generating nationwide PR, a 12-page extra spread, and a title page on their newspaper.
Due to great success, early that year, “Tom’s gallery “opened a branch in Germany, showing his and his artist companions at various art fairs.
Mid of April the renowned and traditional K&K Hof – Bakery created an own new Tom Lohner biscuit collection, designed with five Tom Lohner interpretations of famous Austrian emperors.
Due to popularity and high demand overseas, the product is now also available in Japan.
In June 2019, Tom did the Cover Artwork for the Single “Pump it up” by Austrian Superstar Andreas Gabalier and Austrian Icon Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also did the cover of the 10 years anniversary CD for Andreas Gabalier. For his sold-out Anniversary Tour, he also made a video for the Song “Kaiserjodler” together with London based award-winning company CC-Lab.
At the start of that year, the gallery he is partner with opened a new branch in Germany. Traditional K&K Hof – Bakery created an own new Tom Lohner biscuit collection designed with five Tom Lohner interpretations of famous Austrian emperors, also available in Japan. In December of this year, he broke into the US market by exhibiting at the Miami Art Basel Week / featured work at own booth (Spectrum Art Fair)

2020 a further art show was planned: The Art Expo New York, this time again – a solo booth, but due to the current Corona Virus, the event was postponed.
Another great art project with actress Rose McGowan began that year, visualizing the current Corona situation. The final piece should be painted and mounted on to a great wall in the heart of Vienna.
With the start of February, four Tom Lohner branded diner restaurants opened up throughout Austria that runs by the name of “Heinz.”

AMERICAN ROCK ENTHUSIAST RESIDING IN EUROPE

Tom Lohner‘s love for the rock culture, as well as his appreciation of the more recent post-industrial music and aesthetics, is more than evident in his work, which is partly dedicated to some of the most popular rockers. With his charming sense of humor, he likes to call himself a US sunshine rocker coming from the old fashioned, historical Austria. His colorful and extremely imaginative work is capable of transforming the well-known faces of celebrities into entirely different landscapes of colors and shapes, and because of this playful approach along with the technical excellence, his work has been appreciated and showcased internationally in more than 50 solo and group exhibitions.

THE STYLE

Where passion pulls – follow. Never question this – it may be the only chance in your life to be truly alive, the artist claims.
Lohner’s painting style is a refreshing combination of the traditional medium of acrylic colors and futuristic aesthetics, achieved by a certain cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic twist. The artist doesn’t shy from neon colors or well as earthy tones, such as electric blues and violets, paired with appealing geometrical patterns, which are basically made to be worn by movie stars. Lohner considers it a mighty mix of Walt Disney’s and Tim Burton’s characters, along with Quentin Tarantino’s suspension of telling stories. The additional magic ingredient that binds everything together is the powerful post-industrial music movement.

WEBSITE: www.tomlohner.com
FACEBOOK: TomLohnerOfficial
INSTAGRAM: @tomlohner
YOUTUBE: tomlohner

Read The Full Article on Art Market Magazine Issue #46