A 1990 winner of the prestigious Rome Prize at the American Academy, of Rome, Michael Kessler has had his art acquired by such museums as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, the Huntington Art Gallery , the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. He won an award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 1992 and was associated with the Camegie-Mellon Institute as Visiting Artist in 1993-1995.

Kessler, born in 1954 in Hanover, Pennsylvania, graduated with a B.F.A. from Kutztown University and for many years lived and worked in eastern Pennsylvania, outside the mainstream of the urban art centers. He is relatively uninfluenced by stylistic trends. His sensuous, beautifully crafted biomorphic forms expose the essence of the natural world. "My interest is in the natural dynamics of nature; i.e. energy and growth, light and matter are woven together in my work. Nature is the model and transformation is my subject matter," says Kessler. "I prefer symbols and forms that have a multiplicity of possible meanings. My works are kept open to interpretation and urge the viewer into an associative frame of mind."

Kessler now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife and two children. He believes that the environment there including the light unique to the southwest has had a strongly positive impact on his work.

"Kessler's works aspire to meditative states. His paintings link him to the 19th century American landscape tradition and to its belief in nature's inherent spirituality. "

Garrett Hoig
ARTnews
April 1994