John T. Klammer is a mixed-media artist whose works seek to capture the essence of American cultural icons.
Influenced by the assemblages of Joseph Cornell and the collages of Fred Otnes, John’s constructions are often centered on historical events and people—artists, entertainers, scientists, inventors, aviators, explorers and political figures—who dominated our country’s popular imagination from the post-Civil War era to the mid-twentieth century.

John’s first pieces, Waiting, Reconstruction and Steeplechase Park were created at the beginning of his artistic career in 1968. During the next 45 years, another 46 pieces have been created. Many of them in the 1970s and 1980s revolved around commercial commissions, but his later pieces have been created purely for his own artistic sense.
In addition to securing commissions, largely for magazine and book covers, commercial publishing and private collectors, John has held member and one-man shows at the Society of Illustrators in New York City, in 1994 and 2004, and participated at gallery shows at the Brooklyn Museum and in Connecticut. He was awarded the 1976 prize of the Graphics Artist Guild for his mixed media box construction of Little Miss Sure Shot (Annie Oakley), which also received a Mohawk Paper Prize.

His multi-media artworks are in small private collections in New York, California, Connecticut, Louisiana and New Jersey, in the permanent collection at the Society of Illustrators in New York City, Fordham University, and in the New Britain Connecticut Children’s Museum. However, many remain in the artist’s collection, with a number of them available for sale.

John received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University with a major in History in 1968, attended the New York School of Visual Arts, and is a life member of the Society of Illustrators. He has been a resident of Brooklyn his entire life.