Tom Lohner - The Art of Hard Rock
/Photo by Pascal Riesinger
On Sunday 6th August the Hard Rock Cafe Vienna celebrated it's 3 year anniversary. For this occasion, they exhibited Tom Lohner's entire "the Art of Hard Rock" series and invited him to do a live painting.
The HRC Vienna also commissioned Tom Lohner to paint an interpretation of the legendary Austrian rock band Opus (very much known for their hit single "Life is Live").
They revealed the art piece on that evening, which was signed the same night by each band member in front of the press. This specific art work is now part of the famous Hard Rock Cafe memorabilia collection as well as a golden record the band donated the same night. Tom Lohner was also asked to create a special "Tom Lohner" artist pin series for the corporation.
Music On Walls had the chance to discuss with Tom Lohner a week after the show.
How was the experience working with Hard Rock Cafe Vienna?
Hard Rock is a really big corporation and working with big brands can sometimes be complicated as they "normally" need to run everything by a lot of people (new ideas, concepts for projects such as this one e.g.) - BUT luckily Europe's marketing manager is a collector of mine - and even better - each venue owner became a fan of my work, that made everything a lot easier!
Photo by Pascal Riesinger
Therefore my ideas were not only realized but also exagerated! An example of such was the cake of the three year anniversary event in Vienna where I showed my work within my Hard Rock Cafe tour. They made their birthday cake look like the Alice Cooper interpretation I did (which for sure was a lot of work and a great surprise for me). They always worked close with me on their social media and shared almost everything we put out there concerning each event. All in all - a great corporation - every Cafe full with people that really pitch in and do their work.
Now that the tour is over they asked me to stay with them (it kinda feels like a family - especially with the people from Vienna). But how can someone stay with them once an art exhibition tour is over (my question)? Well - they asked me to do artist pin series, every year a new pin... which is not only an honor but keeps our relationship up.
What is your favorite artwork from your "The Art of Hard Rock" ?
That would have been a hard question to ask half a year ago but now with some distance I am sure it's Alice Cooper as I really went into crazy detail when working on him. I also like Bono a lot or the Marilyn Manson - each piece has something unique but yes - for me it's the Alice Cooper art piece.
How was the experience to meet the band Opus and paint in their honor?
It was surprisingly easy as they invited me to their studio and showed me around the place. I was surprised how down to earth the entire band was - they actually even invited me to the birthday party of their drummer Mucky. Since then we became friends and the reveal of the art work at the Vienna Hard Rock Cafe was an experience of it's own kind. Sharing this moment with such super stars was not only fun but very humbling to me.
Creating the art work was very easy for me as they pitched me a song called "Opus Pocus" which I listened to over and over again. I then made up this elephant circus - something I got from their lyrics. I formally painted an art series on vinyl (my brother's idea) - something I felt that could work on this project again - and guess what - it did :-D
What is your favorite song of Opus?
Also here I listened to their entire discography again - and I must say it is "Rock on the Rock" and "All I want Is You".
