Glen Kessler
April 2015 Glen Kessler paints images that initially appear to be atmospheric urban and industrial landscapes, but are, in truth, manipulated views of computer circuit boards. These ‘CircuitScapes’ illuminate the microcosmic world inside of our computers under lighting conditions and from angles that make them appear uncannily familiar. By invoking compositional devices from early American landscape painters like Bierstadt and Church, the work references a new Manifest Destiny—the uncharted world that computers have already begun to usher in. It is a landscape both glorious and ominous, filled with uncertainty about a future where computers reshape our world literally and figuratively. Throughout Kessler’s work the analogous nature of these two worlds is formally and conceptually explored. The physical similarities between city design and circuitry are obvious, each exerting a bias towards efficient geometric utility. At ‘street level,’ however, the similarities become uncanny, as the mechanisms that increasingly drive our culture appear to resemble the urban and industrial areas that they maintain. Kessler plays with clarity and obfuscation encouraging viewers to fill in their own connections to places they have been or places they know while they explore these unique worlds. Kessler’s work examines the larger paradigm shift from analog to digital that began in the late 1970s with the personal computer and continues its exponential expansion into all facets of daily life today. Glen Kessler (b. 1976): Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting from the New York Academy of Art. Glen has been awarded a 2013 Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) Grant, 2 Elizabeth Greenshields Grants, and the Prince of Wales Fellowship. His artwork is collected widely internationally, and is in the public collections of Prince Charles, Ford’s Theater, Yale University, The George Washington University, Boston University, Maryland Institute College of Art, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He has earned Best In Show honors at numerous national competitions including ‘The Artist’s Magazine.’ His work has been prominently featured in ‘The Artist’s Magazine,’ ‘Professional Artist Magazine,’ and ‘ArtsyShark.’ In addition to his own studio work, Glen is also a renowned teacher and mentor. He has taught avidly at both the university and community level for nearly 2 decades. He has taught upper level painting and drawing classes at Maryland Institute College of Art, George Washington University, George Mason University, Boston University, as well as The Yellow Barn Studio. In 2013 he opened his own revolutionary art school, The Compass Atelier, to facilitate the teaching of a cohesive art curriculum that takes students through all the necessary elements for artistic success in the most logical, efficient order.
