Michael Kessler was born in 1954 in Hanover, Pennsylvania. He received a B.F.A. degree from Kutztown University. He currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.AWARDS / FELLOWSHIPSRome Prize, Painting, American Academy in Rome , 1990Pollock/Krasner Award, Painting, New York, New York , 1992Whitney Independent Study Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York , 1977Awards in the Visual Arts-Five, Grant in Painting, South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art, 1985Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Grant in Painting , 1983SOLO EXHIBITIONS2013Callan Contemporary, New Orleans, LouisianaPaia Contemporary Gallery, Maui, HawaiiRussell Collection, Austin, TexasGallery Mar, Park City, Utah2012Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaGallery Mar, Park City, UtahPaia Contemporary Gallery, Maui, HawaiiDean Day Gallery, Houston, TexasJoseph Gierek Fine Art, Tulsa, OklahomaArtamo, Santa Barbara, California2011Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, LouisanaMadison Gallery, La Jolla, CaliforniaButters Gallery, Portland, OregonPaia Contemporary Gallery, Maui, HawaiArgazzi Art, Lakeville, ConnecticutAnn Korologos Gallery, Basalt, ColoradoRussell Collection, Austin, Texas2010Paia Contemporary Gallery, Maui, HawaiiMark Gallery, Englewood, New JerseyLanoue Fine Art, Boston, MassachusettsGallery Mar, Park City, Utah2009Melanee Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IllinoisFriesen Gallery, Seattle, WashingtonJoseph Gierek Fine Art, Tulsa, OklahomaSchmidt/Dean Gallery; Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaGallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, LouisianaArt Cube Gallery, Laguna Beach, CaliforniaMadison Gallery, La Jolla, California2008George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, California.Blink Gallery, Boulder, ColoradoNuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoArtamo Gallery, Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSchmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaRenee George Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina2007Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, LouisanaSense Gallery, Menlo Park, California.Art Now Gallery, Gothenberg, SwedenButters Gallery, Portland, OregonLanoue Gallery, Boston, MassesschuetsRussell Collection, Austin, TexasDaniel Kany Gallery, Portland, MaineDean Day Gallery, Houston, Texas2006Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, LouisanaCraighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TexasFriesen Gallery, Sun Valley, IdahoMelanee Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IlliniosSchmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaNuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoAllyn Gallup Contemporary, Sarasota, FloridaJohn Raimondi Gallery, Boston, MassaschucitsReed Savage Gallery, Miami, FloridaPerry Nicole Fine Art, Memphis, Tennessee2005Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoSense Gallery, Menlo Park, California.Butters Gallery, Portland, OregonFriesen Gallery, Seattle, Washington2004Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoAllyn Gallup Contemporary, Sarasota, FloridaSchmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaMagidson Fine Art, Aspen, Colorado2003Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoCraighead Green Gallery , Dallas , TexasButters Gallery, Portland, OregonLittlejohn Contemporary, New York, New YorkSense Gallery, Menlo Park, Ca.2002Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaNuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoConcept Art Gallery; Pittsburgh, Pa.2001Allyn Gallup Contemporary, Sarasota, FloridaEVO Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoBonfoey Company, Cleveland , Ohio2000Klein Art Works, Chicago, Illinois1999Littlejohn Contemporary, New York, New YorkKlein Art Works, Chicago, IllinoisMira Mar Gallery; Sarasota, FloridaSchmidt/Dean Gallery; Phila, Pennsylvania1998Bemis Center of Contemporary Art , Omaha , NebraskaCraighead Green Gallery , Dallas , Texas1997Littlejohn Contemporary, New York, New YorkKlein Art Works, Chicago, IllinoisLewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico1996Littlejohn Contemporary, New York, New YorkSchmidt / Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa1995Galleri Flesser , Helsingborg , SwedenBemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NebraskaArt Now Gallery , Gothenberg, SwedenKlein Artworks, Chicago, Illinois1994Klein Artworks; Chicago, IllinoisSchmidt/Dean Gallery; Philadelphia, Pa.Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, New YorkConcept Art Gallery; Pittsburgh, Pa.1993Art Now Gallery; Goteborg, SwedenSchmidt/Dean Gallery; Phila., Pennsylvania1992Klein Artworks; Chicago, IllinoisAllentown Art Museum; Allentown, PennsylvaniaCastellani Art Museum; Niagara Falls, New YorkSchmidt/Dean Gallery; Phila, PennsylvaniaMira Mar Gallery; Sarasota, Florida1991Art Now Gallery; Goteborg, Sweden1990Nina Freudenheim Gallery; Buffalo, New YorkKlein Artworks; Chicago, IllinoisSchmidt/Dean Gallery; Phila., PennsylvaniaJack Tilton Gallery; New York, New York1989Art Now Gallery; Goteborg, Sweden1988Jack Tilton Gallery; New York, New York1987Barbara Krakow Gallery; Boston, MassachusettsJack Tilton Gallery, New York, New York1986Art Now Gallery; Goteborg, SwedenFabian Carlsson Gallery; London, EnglandWolff Gallery, New York, New York1984Jack Tilton Gallery; New York, New York1983Castellani Art Gallery; Niagara Falls, New YorkTEACHING EXPERIENCE1999/00College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico1992/93Lafayette College; Easton, Pennsylvania1993/95Carnegie Mellon University; Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaSELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2006Selections from the Vitale, Caturano & Company Collection, Bentley College, Waltham, MA2005New Work for the New Space Group Show, Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas ,TxThe History of the Gallery, Kustera Tilton Gallery, NYCThe Plane Truth, Friesen Gallery, Seattle, Wa.Butters Brand, Butters Gallery, Portland, Or.2004The Non-Objective Object, Friesen Gallery, Seattle, Wa.Summer Group Show, Butters Gallery, Portland, Or.November in Sun Valley, Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, Id.Gallery Artists, Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, Nm.2003Art for Life, Cascade AIDS Project, Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, ORSummer Group Show, Littlejohn Contemporary, NYCAbstraction, Art Resources Gallery, St.. Paul, Mn.2002Nature Reined, Butters Gallery, Portland, ORSummer Group Show, Littlejohn Contemporary, NYC2001Introductions, Butters Gallery, Portland, OR12th Anniversary Show, Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA2000Gallery Artists, Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia. Pa.Gallery Artists, Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pa.1999After Nature II, Trevor Richardson, Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts AmherstAn Exhibition of Paintings by: Gregory Amenoff ,Bill Jensen, Michael Kessler,Rebecca Perdum,Katherine Porter1998Michael Kessler and Stephanie Weber, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NebraskaContemporary Abstraction, Klein Art Works, Chicago1997Abstract Confluence, Klein Art Works, Chicago1996Elusive Nature, 1996 Cuenca Bienal of Painting, Cuenca, Ecuador. Curated by David Rubin, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.1995Directors Choice, Horwitch/Lewallen Gallery, Santa Fe, New MexicoGallery Artists , Klein Artworks, Chicago Illinois.Michael Kessler/James Bruss, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska1993About Nature, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohiocurated by David Rubin, Curator of Contemporary Art, C.C.C.A.1991Vital Forces, Nature in Contemporary Abstraction, The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NYRomantic Abstraction, Works by Amenoff, Kessler, Raimondi; Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Fl.Annual Exhibition, American Academy in Rome, ItalyDrawings and Poems: Michael Kessler and John Yau; Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaVital Forces, Nature in Contemporary Abstraction; Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York1990Five American Artists; Galerie D'Art, Copenhagen, DenmarkInner Natures: Four Contemporary Painters; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, Ca.“Holiday Invitational,” ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables (Miami), Florida1989Four Painters, Flint Institute of Arts; Flint, Michigan1988Pennsylvania Perspectives; Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaRecent Acquisitions; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania1987Realism and Abstraction; The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey1986Recent Acquisition; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, BuffaloMore Than Meets the Eye; Galleria Carini, Florence, Italy1985More Than Meets the Eye; Fabian Carlsson Gallery, London, EnglandAwards in the Visual Arts-Five; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York;Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Norton Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida1984New York-Outside New York; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York;Museum of Art Association, Monterey, California; Sunrise Museums, Inc. Charleston, West Virginia1983Five Contemporary Artists; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PennsylvaniaSelections 22; The Drawing Center, New York, New York1980In and Out of New York; White Columns, New York, New YorkBIBLIOGRAPHY2009D. Eric Bookhardt, Michael Kessler at Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, Gambit, September, 20092008Richard Speer, Michael Kessler at Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon, Art Ltd. July, 2008Kevin Costello, Finding Solace in Abstracts, Sarasota Herald Tribune, August 2008Erin J. Smith, Michael Kessler : Graftings, CASA Magazine, November 2008Colin Marshall, Michael Kessler's Graftings, Santa Barbara Independent, November, 20082006D. Eric Bookhardt, Scratching the Surface, Michael Kessler at Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, Gambit, January, 20062005Richard Speer, Michael Kessler at Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. ARTnews, November, 20052004Kevin Costello, Kessler Landscapes Energetci, Enigmatic, The Sarasota Harold TribuneRoberta Fallon, Michael Kessler's New Paintings...,Philadelphia Weekly2003Richard Speer, Kessler at Butters Gallery, Willamette Week, Portland, Or.2002Edward J. Sozanski, Philadelphia Inquirer, Taming the Grid, Michael Kessler at Schmidt/Dean Gallery in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaRobert Nott, Surface Matters, Pasatiempo, The New MexicanKurt Shaw, Southwest Influences..., The Pitsburgh Tribune2001Douglas Max Utter, Mind Over Matter, The Cleveland Free Times1999Trevor Richardson, After Nature II, Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts AmherstAn Exhibition of Paintings by: Gregory Amenoff ,Bill Jensen, Michael Kessler,Rebecca Perdum,Katherine Porter1997Kathleen McCloud ,A Capricious Artistic Journey Beginning With Paint , Pasitempo, The New Mexican, Oct. 3, 1997Victor M. Cassidy, Artnet Magazine, http://www.artnet.com/home.html ,Forty to Fifty LayersDavid Ebony, ArtNet Magazine , http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/ebony/kessler.html.....David Ebony's New York Top Ten , Michael Kessler at Littlejohn Contemporary , NYMiriam Seidel , Art In America , Michael Kessler at : Schmidt/Dean (Philadelphia) and Littlejohn Contemporary (New York)Roberto Aguilar, EL COMERCIO , Cuenca , Ecuador , A Mystical Version of the Ecology , The U.S Room in the 5th Biennialle1996Rubin, David, “Elusive Nature”, 1996 Cuenca Bienal, Cuenca, Ecuador1992McNear, Sarah, "Transcendental Spaces"; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania1991Noll,Anna ,“Vital Forces: Nature in Contemporary Abstraction”, Heckscher Museum, Huntington,NY1990Doll, Nancy “Inner Natures” Four Contemporary Artists; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa BarbaraKing, Elaine A. Nature in the Age of Masscult. Jack Tilton Gallery; New York, New YorkRubin, David S. The Paintings of Michael Kessler: Preserving Nature's Umbilical Chord; Klein Artworks, Chicago, IllinoisStein, Judith. Michael Kessler: Paintings Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York1989Yau, John. Four Painters; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MichiganNature in Evolution; The Scandinavian Works; Art Now Gallery, Goteborg, Sweden1988Yau, John. Michael Kessler's View of the World; Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, New York1987Carrier, David. Michael Kessler; Jack Tilton Gallery, New York1986Gambrel, Jamey. Awards in the Visual Arts 5; The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston- Salem, North CarolinaYau, John. After the Fall; Fabian Carlson Gallery, London, England1984Rifkin, Ned. New Work: New York/Outside New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Made in Philadelphia 6; Institute of Contemporary Art, Phila., Pennsylvania1983Kotik, Charlotta. Landscapes and Imagery: Paintings and Drawings by Michael Kessler; Niagara University, Niagara Falls, New YorkPERIODICALS1997Seidel, Miriam, “Michael Kessler at Schmidt/Dean and Littlejohn Contemporary” , Art in America, July 1997Ebony, David, “Michael Kessler at Littlejohn Contemporary, New York City”, ArtNet Magazine, April 1997McCloud, Kathlieen, “A Capricious Artistic Journey Beginning With Paint”, Pasatiempo, The New Mexican, October 19971996Altabe, Joan “Kessler’s Subtle Paintings Reveal Depth”, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, October 11, 1996Yellin Outwater,Myra, “Move to Santa Fe Colors Michael Kessler’s Paintings “, The Morning Call, Alentown, Pa. Novenber 17, 1996Aguilar, Robert, “A Mystical Version of the Ecology”, El Comercio, Cuenca, Ecuador1995Melrod, George, "Openings", Art and Antiques, November 1995, page 401994Holg, Garrett. "Kessler at Klein-Chicago", Artnews, April, 1994, page 177.Kohen, Helen. "Michael Kessler's Roman Geometry", Miami Herald, April 6, 1994. page 14GWiens, Ann, "Kessler at Klein-Chicago", New Art Examiner, May 1994, page 441992McCracken, David. 11 Year in Italy Catapults Kessler's Work", Chicago Tribune, (October 30)1991Sozanski, Edward. "On Galleries", The Philadelphia Inquirer, (April 16)1990Carter, Holland. "Michael Kessler," Art News 89 (December), no.10, 165Cohen, Ronnie. "Michael Kessler," Art Forum 29 (November), no. 3, 169Rice, Robin. "Cool Slate and Weathered Wood," Philadelphia City Paper (March 16)Sozanski, Edward. "On Galleries," The Philadelphia Inquirer (March 4)Wooster, Ann Sargent. "Michael Kessler," Arts Magazine 65 (December), no. 4, 821989Cyphers, Peggy. Arts Magazine 65 (January), no. 5, 1071988Newhall, Edith. "Galleries," New York Magazine (September), 721987Carrier, David. "Michael Kessler: A Painter of Nature in the Era of Postmodernist Art” Arts Magazine 61 (May), no. 9, 32-33Narrett, Eugene. "Michael Kessler," New Art Examiner 14 (April), no. 8, 45Stapen, Nancy. "Michael Kessler," Artforum 25 (April),Wineberg, Jonathan. "Michael Kessler," Art in America 75 (November), no.11, 180-1811986Hall, Jacqueline. "Arts Flourish Southside New York," The Columbus Dispatch (September 21)Zimmer, William. "Winners on Parade at the Neuberger," The New York Times (May 11), 22, Westchester Section1985Bohn-Duchen, Monica. "Nine Painters from New York," Flash Art (October-November), no. 126, 56Larson, Kay. "Fresh Faces for Summer," New York Magazine, 54-55Raynor, Vivian. "Art: New York, an Anthology at the New Museum," The New York Times (June 22),Schwabsky, Barry. "Exotica: A Different World," Arts Magazine 59 (March), no.7, 120-121Yau, John. "Michael Kessler," Artforum 23 (February), no.6, 87, "Michael Kessler's Drawings: Gesture as Image," Sulfer 14 (December), 88-931984Warren, Ron. "Michael Kessler at Jack Tilton Gallery," Arts Magazine 58 (Summer) no. 10, 34-351983Glueck, Grace. "Art-One Man's Biennial Assembles 102 Artists," The New York Times (April 15),REVIEWMICHAEL KESSLER: THE SENSE(S) OF ABSTRACTIONBy Peter FrankBeneath their pearlescent skin, Michael Kessler’s paintings breathe - breathe, you might think, like the flora whose limbs and trunks course through his compositions; but, no, they breathe more as music breathes. To be sure, the spine, visual and spiritual, of Kessler’s painting is that of the natural - the botanical - world. But the sense of structure that pervades his paintings maintains an elaborate, patterned density all its own, one you start to hear as you see it. Intricately contrapuntal partitions, multiphonic overlays, shifting sequences of dark and light, large and small, flatness and texture, color and grisaille predominate in particular in his newest work. In their flow and punctuation, these latest paintings are veritable scores for hearing - or soundings for seeing.Although he acknowledges their musical nature, Kessler does not produce these tableaux in response to any musical stimulus, specific composition or general formula. Indeed, until recently his own commentary and others’ has stressed the natural - the "organic" - factors giving the work its swooping, crackling linear presence. The lyricism infusing Kessler’s painting resides, in fact, in its myriad branches and veins, factors that do not contribute to the paintings’ melodic or harmonic quality but flavor it with a nuance that determines timbre. You might say they constitute the instrumental - that is, optical - inflection here. But, to re-emphasize, such visual-sonic equivalence is no more impulse of the artist than it is the fancy of the viewer.One may be on more secure ground identifying Kessler’s structure as architectural. The off-beat recurrence of geometric forms framing and interrupting the persistent, underlying treelike forms and images can certainly be likened to eccentric arrangements of windows in the façades of modernist buildings: Le Corbusier and Niemeyer would recognize Kessler’s sense of order as a recapitulation of their own. In many paintings the trees and branches appear framed by these apertures. But, goes the aphorism, architecture is frozen music, and there is a flow to these paintings’ disposition that urges the eye to travel, to see all the visual incident as at least potentially in flux. Deliberately or not, Kessler may have determined the moment at which architecture’s solidity gives way to music’s fluidity.All that said, note should be made as well of the mood - the tone - set in these paintings. It is a shifting tone, one that doesn’t simply set organic intricacy against the geometric pacing of a built environment, but builds on the animated superposition of these two sets of elements, on the contrast and the continuity that maintain between them. Certain of the newer paintings can seem brittle, dry and wintry, while others radiate an earthy warmth. They evoke weather and flavor, age and scent. Metaphorically, at least, these paintings appeal to all five senses. You can taste them with your ears.Michael Kessler invites such synesthetic hyperbole through a process of deformulation. He restricts his vocabulary to certain subjects and certain forms, then breaks down these forms and subjects by running them into and through one another. In musical terms, it is a formidable polyphony - a polyphony felt with an immediacy that transcends, or more to the point breaks through, metaphoric equivalency. You do hear them with your eyes. Los Angeles December 2012REVIEWExhibition Review: Park CityThe Occasion of Hybrid ArtMichael Kessler at Gallery MARby Geoff WichertDuring the twentieth century, someone was always looking around and calling what he saw “the death of art.” Yet those years saw the creation of more original and innovative ways of art-making than in any other comparable era. Following the lead of painting, most of those newer approaches (collage, assemblage, serigraphy, installation, performance, video, encaustic, etc.) were viewed by their creators as more that just superficial novelties: the abstract expressionists saw their technical breakthroughs as formal replacements for traditional content (theme, subject matter, point of view). Even those artists who continued to draw and paint from life generally recognized that the style of presentation had become more important than the choice of what to present. For a pop artist, a ketchup bottle and a movie star were equal subjects, provided they were presented in a manner that looked appropriate to the time and place of their representation.So painting entered the twenty-first century offering an unprecedented range of material choices. Such variety, however, does not equal complete freedom; after all, if the look of the work contributes materially to its content—indeed may BE its content—then that look has to be appropriate to the work’s purpose. Every art student learns to capture the superficial style of cubism—never mind that her work may not share the reasons why cubist art looked the way it did. Works making arbitrary approaches may have decorative virtue, but they clearly would not contribute anything original and legitimate to art. They would not, to use a phrase popularized by the contemporary art movement, “be part of the discourse.”This history is necessary prelude to an experience that has become common in the gallery. On scanning a room full of art, it’s often the case that new works recall otherwise unconnected ones. Not that they are copies, or even influenced by the earlier work, but it seems as though a look from another time and place has percolated into them, creating a kind of hybrid. The result can be very exciting, as was the case last week, when I came across the paintings of Michael Kessler at MAR Gallery in Park City. Kessler was born in Pennsylvania in 1954, but has lived and worked in New Mexico for some time, so he may be thought a local artist. And although his work initially appears absolutely abstract, closer study reveals it to be rooted in nature —specifically in the emergence from plant architecture of its characteristic surface textures and forms. Finding an image that delivers such a powerful, purely aesthetic rush—the pleasure of rich color and strong line, working together to create a complex-but-unified experience within the frame—and discovering on further examination that it evokes and imports inferences about the world into which it emerges, is the kind of discovery one expects to make in the museum, among the old masters, not something today’s art often delivers.A few further observations are worth making. As is generally true since the departure of the abstract expressionist “giants,” Kessler’s works run from small to middle size. Their surfaces are hard and glass-like, qualities that go well with their frequent suggestion of stained glass windows. They call to mind European post-WW2 stained glass, with its strong graphic quality: lead lines used to draw freely over an expansive background of colored geometry that is characterized by hand-made textures. In addition to printmaking, the glassy surface encourages a feeling of peering into a shallow space full of scratched, raked, or sprinkled patterns. Lines, varying in weight but usually accompanied by shadows or auras (as if backlit) wind and weave before these grounds, sometimes freely and at other times seeming to be contained in tubes or passageways that crisscross the panel. In addition to botanical details, topological impressions often suggest charts and maps.It would be sufficient for many in the audience that these are beautiful, captivating, and hypnotic paintings that the eye will never exhaust. They will continue to reward careful and even casual study for as long as they are seen. But for those who want to find another truth—one that can be translated into words—there are metaphors to be found in their resemblance to so many natural events. Whether it’s the starry sky, or bubbles rising in a clear vessel, or the overlap of a texture and a line producing a recognizable object like a leaf or branch, a visual argument is being made in these images. The miracle of the language you are reading is that from a large-but-finite number of words and the rules for combining them, infinite variation is possible, and anything can be said. Michael Kessler demonstrates that from a similarly large-but-limited number of colors and two-dimensional shapes, a three-dimensional world of infinite possibility arises.Sometimes I think I’m getting tired of art, but I could watch this happen all day, and for the rest of my life.