FRAMING SPACE — JERUSALEM

Exhibition: 4  – 29 December, 2015
Opening: Thursday, 3rd December, 7 – 9 pm,, Introduction: PhD Hans Hoffmann, Historian
Address: WHITECONCEPTS | August­straße 35 | 10119 Berlin | www.whiteconcepts.de

WHITECONCEPTS gallery is pleased to present the solo show of Susanne Kessler focusing on the city Jerusalem. Her tour started in March 2015 with “The Seven Hills of Jerusalem”, curated by Vincenzo Mazzarella and Paolo Bielli, in the church Santa Lucia del Gonfalone in Rome followed by “The Jerusalem Project” in April 2015 during the Off Course – Art Fair Brussels organized by curator Antonio Nardone. On November 7th her installation “Jerusalem”, curated by Jack Rasmussen, will be opened at the American University Museum at the Katzen Art Center in Washington/DC.

Susanne Kessler became known with her volumetric, organically staged installations. Since the early 1980s she has been searching for new possibilities to make paintings or drawings three-dimensional. Extending her investigation of the metaphysical and organic substrate that infuses and shapes human action, Susanne Kessler’s installation, Jerusalem, brings a prophetic voice to consideration of this sacred and troubled city. Kessler’s fascination with the transformation of human culture has been shaped and cultivated by her experience of living for the past 30 years in the ancient city of Rome that was founded like Jerusalem on seven hills.
Like Rome, Jerusalem is a city of layers that has undergone continual transformation. A geographical gateway between East and West, it is home to the three great religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity – the source of both its greatest gifts and its most intractable challenges. What is this city that it can somehow attract, distill and focus such profound insight into the great mysteries, while simultaneously provoking some of the world’s most intense suffering?

Susanne Kessler was born 1955 and is currently living and working in Rome and Berlin. She studied at the University of Fine Arts (UdK) in Berlin and at the Royal College of Art in London (MA). Her work has been shown in more than 60 solo shows. Among her awards are the DAAD-stipend, the Paul-Strecker-Award of the city Mainz and the nomination for the Kaiserring-Grant of the city Goslar. Her manifold travel grants took her throughout Europe, to India, Pakistan, Mali, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and to the USA. In 2001 and 2002 she hold an associate professorship for installation and drawing at the University of California, followed in 2010 by an associate professorship to the Art Academy Riga/Latvia, and in 2011-2013 to the City University New York, USA. Her works are represented in numerous public collections in Europe and America, and in multitudinous private collections.

The book “Framing Space”, recently released by the German publisher Distanz, gives a retrospective overview of the artist’s most important sculptures and installations created in the last thirty years. The book containing contributions by Achille Bonito Oliva, Vincenzo Mazzarella and Johannes Nathan is available in the gallery.

Text by Sarah Bliss

Infor­ma­tion about the artist and avail­able works