Professor Jon Kessler Recently in Two Exhibitions in China
Visual Arts professor Jon Kessler was recently in an exhibition with multiple installations in Shanghai at Chronus Art Center as well as in Guangzhou at the Guangdong Museum of Art. His installations were exhibited in Shanghai from November 8, 2018 through January 20, 2019 and in Guangzhou from December 21, 2018 through March 10, 2019.
At Chronus Art Center in Shanghai, Kessler’s exhibition was entitled Datumsoria, which also included work from the Chinese artist YAN Lei. The exhibition investigates the neologism, which conjugates datum and sensoria, denoting a new perceptual space immanent to the information age. Kessler has two kinetic sculptures in the exhibition entitled Gisele and the Cinopticon and I’m Nothing Without You. Kessler’s work is known for putting a twist on pop culture imagery and his pieces “are as manipulative as evasive by way of a mechanically rendered flurry of speeds and kaleidoscope of juxtapositions and superimpositions, insinuating infinite regressions and expansion at the same time, reminiscent of a paradoxical mixology of anxiety, humor, desire and failure that is characteristic of the contemporary American ethos or the world at large,” according to Chronus Art Center.
His work in Guangzhou was exhibited as a part of the 6th Guangzhou Triennial titled As We May Think: Feedforward. According to Art News, the exhibition focused on “the multiple implications engendered by such a technologically constructed time-space.”
Chronus Art Center describes Kessler’s work as “critique[ing] our image-obsessed, surveillance-dominated world. His machines are at once complex and lumbering, combining mechanical know-how with kitschy materials and images. Structurally complex and narratively engaging, Jon Kessler’s multimedia sculptures often deliver an emotional punch beyond their humble means. With his distinct vocabulary, Kessler taps into our all-too-real modern-day anxieties, but at the same time, spirits us away into an exciting wonderland that is ultimately uplifting.”
Kessler received a B.F.A. from SUNY at Purchase and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He has exhibited his work widely in Europe, Japan, and the United States. He has sculptures in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He has received several NEA grants, the St. Gaudens Memorial Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Foundation for the Performing Arts grant.