WELCOME TO MY STUDIO!  

I am mainly an abstract and conceptual artist, mostly using sustainable materials, or materials that were headed for landfill.

My concern as an artist is to question and challenge conventional perceptions and opinions about identity, purpose and the nature of every day life. Relationships often play a central role in my work.

My work may involve carving, painting and sanding, and even burning, to bring about the exciting textures, representing the history of material things, reflecting life and life's experiences. These you can see on the page 'greenish paintings', above, or by pressing the button 'greenish paintings'.

I enjoy conversations occurring that otherwise would not have happened, coming about due to my work stirring up emotions or thoughts.​
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I have done commissions of private sculptures, as well as shown my work in various international galleries over the years.
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2023 has been a really busy year with our work being showed various times at Hastings Arts Forum, including my participating in the 'Arte Povera' show, which took me back to my roots - using found objects to make statements, and rejuvenate them into objects of beauty and intrigue.

Tessa and I then held an exhibition, together with our artist friend, Alice Maylam, at the gallery in '1200 Postcards', Queen's rd., Hastings, for a month, followed in May by an exhibition at Electro Studios and then another at the Zoom Gallery, near Warrior Square Station, with work from all three of us.



Tessa and I held an 'Arty Party' on 3rd June, 2023, in our home and studio, which we transformed into galleries - where we combined art, music, food and fun. It was a great success and we both sold quite a bit of our work then.
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I had work showing at the Dragon Bar, George st, in old town Hastings, in July.

Also in July Tessa and took on a pop up gallery in St Andrews Mews, Hastings, for 3 months. We named it BLAST Art Gallery and showed a variety of artists' work (around 50 in total) in four exhibitions during July and August. The themes of these exhibitions were 'Being Me', 'About Face', Minutia' and the final one was 'Abstraction'. Then for the month of September we are showing our own work, together with 3 other artists, Alice Maylam, Elina Rudzite and Emma Harding, for the Coastal Currents Open Studio.


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In September both Tessa and I had work accepted in Boomer Gallery, Tower Bridge, London
I was born in Germany to artist parents (Will Thonett and Marianne Tralau), and studied in Dun Laoghaire School of Art  and Design (now IADT), Dublin, Ireland.

I taught sculpture and drawing at university level for seventeen years at
​D. I .T, as well as teaching art to children, troubled youth and post grad students over the years. I held many exhibitions in both Germany and Ireland during those years.
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​Since meeting Tessa we have travelled the world, always making art wherever we landed - we lived in Upstate New York and Cameroon, Africa, before moving to the UK (Tessa's homeland) in 2004.  We moved to Hastings in mid 2022.

An Interview about my life's work so far, with Lesley Samms from Pure Art,: 

Markus Thonett Art
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​Click  the button below to see a short interview with Tessa and myself about the exhibition which ran for 2 months at Bannatyne Spa Hotel, Hastings, in July and Aug 2022