Nineteen of Michael Kessler’s works were displayed in the offices of Drewett Works located in downtown Scottsdale, 7144 E Stetson Dr, Suite 204 from 2015 through 2018.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist. — Albert Einstein

We first met artist Michael Kessler in the year 2000…well…sort of…

It was not your typical introduction involving a handshake and a greeting. Instead, it was a glimpse followed by lingering looks as his paintings captured our glances. On Valentine’s Day weekend in the year 2000, we dined at Geronimo in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And as we enjoyed what might have been the perfect Valentine’s dinner, we were introduced to the work of a kindred spirit, Michael Kessler.

Our weekender to Santa Fe was not soon forgotten. The memories of delicious food, good company, beautiful weather, and galleries filled with inspiration and creativity have stayed with us all these years. And in early December of 2014, we contacted Michael Kessler with a proposal – to share his creativity with us in our new downtown Scottsdale office. The result? Our gallery-style white walls became home to nineteen pieces of Michael Kessler’s works.

Below are several candid photos taken before, during, and after the installation. We hope you will enjoy the pictures.

 

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. — W. Somerset Maugham

About Michael Kessler

Michael Kessler makes nature-based paintings that merge geometric elements with biomorphism. He began his art career as a landscape painter. While still an undergraduate at Kutztown University, Kessler received a fellowship from the Whitney Museum of American Art to study and produce art in New York City at the Whitney Independent Study Program.

During this period (1977–78), he met many important artists working in New York City including Richard Tuttle and Dorothea Rockburne. Influenced by the paintings of Brice Marden and Elizabeth Murray as well as the music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, he began experimenting with his own work. His paintings soon became fully non-objective.

Kessler’s works are characterized by large fields of diaphanous color that are activated by organic linear structures that have been visually and physically woven into a grid structure which consists of thick slabs of paint. These organic linear structures are overlapped and punctuated by dendritic growth patterns that suggest the bending of time and space. All of these visual elements as well as the color combinations have been carefully extracted from nature over time through prolonged observation, and then reconstructed and orchestrated to transmit the dynamics of the Natural World. In this way, Kessler synthesizes disparate elements into a new kind of harmony.

In 1991 after returning from a year in Italy (via. the Rome Prize) Kessler became very involved with large-scale, site-specific installations. Gallery owner Chris Schmidt (Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia) worked with Kessler to initiate this project by obtaining a commission from Arlen Specter for Kessler’s first site-specific work which was installed in Senator Specter’s office at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. In Chicago, Kessler continued this pursuit with Gallery owner Paul Klein who also got involved with the placement of site-specific works in his gallery Klein Art Works.

Nature is his model and transformation is his subject – his process an organic evolution. His work can be found in over 25 museum collections in the US in addition to numerous corporate and private collections including his recent commission for Emeril’s Chop House at Beth Sands Casino in Pennsylvania.

Kessler’s works displayed at Drewett Works

 

To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of an artist. — Robert Schumann

Michael Kessler’s work is featured in these Museum Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania; 
Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, Austin, Texas;
 Broad Foundation, Los Angeles, California; 
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; 
Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, New York; 
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; 
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Fine Arts Gallery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, Michigan; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii; Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
; Museum of Fine Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
 Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania; 
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California.

Learn more about the artist here >> Michael Kessler’s website

While the Kessler exhibition at DW has concluded, we still have a few pieces on display in our office.