Michael Kessler

Michael Kessler is an abstract painter living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, known for nature-based abstractions that join organic and geometric forms. Born in 1954 in Hanover, Pennsylvania, he earned his B.F.A. from Kutztown University and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program. He won the Rome Prize in Painting from the American Academy in Rome in 1990 and a Pollock-Krasner award in 1992. His work is in more than 25 museum collections across the United States, as well as many corporate and private collections.

Kessler builds each painting from up to 50 micro-thin layers of translucent and transparent acrylic, pulling paint across the surface with tools like aluminum skimmers and using curved masking tape to block out geometric zones. The result recalls natural processes like sedimentation and erosion and evokes tree bark, seashells, and the surface of water. He compares the balance between gesture and geometry in his work to a painterly tai chi. Studio E Gallery in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, represents Michael Kessler.