Markus Karner :: Skyscapes
August 28 2003
 Austrian born,with his second home in Atlanta USA and Singapore located, Markus Karner is exquisite photographer with PhD in Marine Biology. He discovered that Archaebacteria are prevalent in the subsurface ocean. These organisms have special capabilities and were thought to occur in extreme environments only. Due to Dr. Karner's research we now know they must play a large role in the chemistry of the planet.
He sailed the world's oceans on research expeditions and received the U.S. National Science Foundation Medal for Services in Antarctica.
 Dr. Karner moved to Singapore in 2001 and established Karner Consult Pte. Ltd. As its CEO and Chief Consultant, Dr. Karner shares his expertise with businesses related to biotechnology, microbiology, genetics, urban ecology, marine and coastal environments, waste management...
Front Room Gallery proudly presents the photographic opus of Dr. Karner related to his world travels. This exciting visual content represents the Earth as the source of Life.Dr. Karner as an matured artist explores the landscapes not only as magnificent scenery but as somethning that keeps on reminding us what we should and must preserve for future.
 Dr. Markus Karner uses the biggest photography studio while he does not use the biggest microbiology laboratory. Or sometimes, the studio and lab are used simultaneously. They share the same name: Planet Earth.
In general photographic language, Dr. Karner's opus can be easily classified as landscapes, but I would rather call it either skyscapes or earthscapes. With all the preciseness of his biology background, Dr. Karner travels the Earth and captures the essential moments in the sequence of life :day-night, dawn-dusk, water-air-sky, cold-warm.all put in order and balanced by Nature. And somewhere, in eternal interaction, pulses Genesis with both faces open : life - death.and again life and death.endlessly.
 Art and Science have always been integrated. It is only now, at the beginning of the 21st Century, that people started to think that the marriage of Art and Science is something extraordinary and new, just because we have so called new technologies and certainly uncertain means and tools to change genetically, modify or clone. Art seems emotional and Science seems rational. Yet, then and now, scientists need the same intuitions as artists do, and artists need the crafts, skills and technologies.
I am positive that Dr. Karner is highly skilled to embed a simple chip into a goldfish and use it to remote control the creature in order to call it an art piece. But he chooses the other way to remind us where we came from, how temporary we are and what will come after us. In his photos of colliding clouds and shapeless oceans, endless deserts and strips of land or ice, he pictures the natural frame for Biology's group portrait. And Nature knows how to group itself together.
Dr. Karner is there to choose the decisive moment. for us not to forget how small a part of the Big game of life we have...
Gradimir Aleksic
Curator, Front.Room.Gallery
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