Susanne Kessler (1955 in Wuppertal) is a German – Italian painter, illustrator and installation artist.

Life

From 1975–1982 Susanne Kessler studied painting and graphic at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. In 2022 she was awarded the Von der Heydt Culture Prize and in 1992 she won the Paul Strecker Award of the City of Mainz. In addition to scholarships and artist residencies more than 50 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions have taken her throughout Europe and to India, Pakistan, Mali Ethiopia, Guatemala, Iran, Latvia and the USA (Turlock, CA, Washington, DC, New York, NY, Charlottesville, VA). 2001/2002 she has served as a guest professor at the California State University – Stanislaus, USA, followed to the Latvian Academy of Arts in Riga, Latvia in 2010 and to the City University of New York, NY, USA in 2011. Susanne Kessler lives in Berlin/Germany and Rome/Italy.[1]

Work

Susanne Kessler, The universe moves, India 1995
Susanne Kessler,survival kit, 2005

Susanne Kessler creates expansive, organic-like installations. Primarily based on drawing, she has been concentrating on natural, living structures for many years. Some of her work is dedicated to imagery of the internal organs like the human brain, with its visual appearance and its inner complex structure. According to Kessler, only the limitation to the brain, with individual thinking and visualizing, promotes an "ego-construction", which moves away from science and into an artistic world.[2]

Thought fragments and trains of thoughts that deal continually with biological models are often integrated by Kessler into a system of drawings, forming a complex net of overlapping patterns and poetic content.[3] In the center of her work the Wheel of Life, the principle of life,[4] is made visible as a flow of vital energy, as an ever-changing process reflecting at the same time the work process of the artist. Series of drawings are constantly involved in new installations in order to renew from within. This results include spaces of graphic signs and symbols, integrating some of the kinetic energy of the location.

These biological models have revealed themselves, for example, in organic forms cut out of Tyvek paper.[5]

Awards and scholarships

Susanne Kessler, installazione illuminata, Viterbo 2009
Susanne Kessler, disegno spaziale, Galleria Dora Diamanti, Rome 2008

Exhibitions (selection)

Literature

Notes

  1. ^ Washington Project for the Arts; see "resume"
  2. ^ Goethe-Institut, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2004. [1]
  3. ^ The Washington Post Company, September 16, 2004
  4. ^ The Drawing Center, Michael Chisolm, New York, 2007
  5. ^ Bradford McKee, "Artists Challenge Their Audiences, Creating a Sense of Discomfort," The New York Times, April 13, 2006.
  6. ^ California State University Stanislaus
  7. ^ Gallery Epikur
  8. ^ Gallery WHITECONCEPTS for whole section

References

Categories