ANTON KIRCHNER

Denver, CO

Anton Kirchner is a digital photomontage artist whose work is characterized by seamless compositions and symbolist and surreal subject matter. Though his digital work is almost exclusively made of photographic components, his early years of painting in oils make much of his work read more like paintings than photographs. For the components in his compositions, Anton uses only photographs he has personally taken and often heavily digitally modified and repurposed.

Since he began his transition to digital tools in 2002, Anton has exhibited his works across the United States as well as Italy and Germany. He lives and maintains his studio in Denver, Colorado and has traveled to many parts of the world to gather source photographs.


Artist Statement:

I knew that this new medium and I were going to get along well as soon as I started working with digital tools. After many years in the software engineering field, the transition to actually making images on the computer was very easy and exciting. The transition from paint on canvas to wide format printing technology took a bit longer. I always print my work myself. Because the images start and evolve as bits in computer files, there are basically two ways to see them, on a digital display or printing them using inkjet (Giclee) technology. I have done both but prefer printing on canvas or custom made linen substrates.

My subject matter generally tends to be someplace between surreal and symbolist and this was true in my paintings as well. This is also something that defies any attempt I make to deliberately work outside these aesthetic styles. In fact, the images usually evolve in unplanned ways, each successful image taking on its own direction as I react to its current state. Resistance is indeed futile. I think this is actually what makes the work so much fun for me; I hope you will enjoy the pieces as much as I enjoyed making them.