Michael Kessler ~ New Works at Butters Gallery in Portland

Written by Gabriel Ainsworth Wednesday, 15 February 2012 22:07

Portland, OR.- Butters Gallery in Portland presents new works by Michael Kessler from April 7th to 30th 2011. Rome Prize and Pollock/Krasner Award recipient Michael Kessler interweaves organic motifs and rectilinear structure in "New Works," his virtuoso suite of mixed-media paintings.  The organic forms are reminiscent of vines, plants, lichen, and the splattery ooze of raindrops and lava flow. They sprawl across, over, and under squares and rectangles that seem intent on containing them but prove unable to halt their Manifest Destiny. The paintings call to mind Alan Weisman's cautionary 2007 book, The World Without Us, which outlines the gradual decay that could befall great metropolises if human beings died en masse or were forced to flee urban centers for the country:  an inevitable crumbling of city life as nature encroaches upon once-pristine geometric grids.

Despite such apocalyptic undercurrents, the artist's vision is remarkably perky, mitigated and buoyed by a color palette of sumptuous reds, blues, and greens, effectively contrasted against blacks and earth tones. The glint of light on silky varnish also contributes a glamour that belies Kessler's chronicle of relentless decomposition. Rarely has so fatalistic a story been told with such winning élan.

Michael Kessler was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania. He received a B.F.A. from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania in 1978. His awards include the Rome Prize for Painting from the American Academy in Rome in 1990, and a Pollock/Krasner Award in Painting in 1992. Kessler's work has been widely exhibited in the US and abroad, and has been featured in over 70 solo exhibitions since 1983. His paintings are widely collected and appear in over 20 museum collections in the US, including the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Kessler lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit the artist's website at ... http://www.michaelkessler.com/





Founded in 1988, Butters Gallery, Ltd. is established as an important contemporary art source for both private and corporate collectors nationwide. This Oregon family owned and operated gallery focuses on artists from throughout the United States and abroad including several prominent regional artists. They look in all directions to find artists whose work is innovative with regard to content and media. Included are paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculpture consisting of a range of media from paint to glass to ceramic to metal. For over 20 years, the gallery has monthly presented one person and group exhibitions of work by nationally known artists who have garnered the attention of writers, critics, curators and collectors across the US. Their gallery exhibitions have been reviewed in such publications as The New York Times, Art in America, Art News, Sculpture Magazine, Glass Magazine, and American Craft. They have come to be recognized by a large portion of the art viewing public in Portland as one of the most substantial and successful galleries that they may visit. And, during the many years they've been operating, they have successfully encouraged the broadening and blossoming of the Portland art scene. Dedicated to serving our clients as well as our artists, the relationships they cultivate with clients and artists have been and continue to be long and rewarding. Visit the gallery's website at ... www.buttersgallery.com

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