Michael Kessler

Michael Kessler is known for nature-based abstract paintings inspired by the vast desert landscapes of New Mexico, seascapes, and the farmlands of his native Pennsylvania. His style blends hard-edged forms with biomorphism, placing his work on a continuum between gesture and geometry. Driven by “questions of how and why nature looked the way it did,” he explains, “I wanted to peal away the surface so that I could better understand its inner workings.” Each works consists of as many as 50 micro-thin layers of translucent and transparent acrylic. Kessler applies the paint in various ways, for instance by pulling it across the surface with an aluminum skimmer and using masking tape, sometimes bent into gently curved edges, to exclude some areas. The works are characterized by interplays between light and shadow, flatness and texture.