CHRISTINE KESLER
IN A WORLD WHERE YOU ARE POSSIBLE
DECEMBER 17 - JANUARY 17, 2009
Opening reception: Thursday, December 17, from 6 to 8 pm
NOMA GALLERY is proud to present its first solo show by Christine Kesler. "in a world where you are possible" features an installation where the artist intersects and collides paintings, drawings and sculptures as well as a new video piece.
In her work Kesler structures and combines paintings in spatial configurations that allow the viewer to dwell in their visual liminality. The work is organized in a viewing system where the paintings bring to the surface questions of boundaries, self-contained subjectivity and the viewer's agency. A clear interest in language and semiotics is also present in the work, where poetics enter in a way to create an abstract and silent language between the viewer and the paintings. The tension of the work lies on the possibilities of interpersonal communication created by this unstable language as well as the physical relationships established by the installation.
Christine Kesler is a San Francisco based artist and recent graduate from the California College of the Arts MFA Painting and Drawing program. Her work has been shown at 53rd Venice Biennale (curated by Jan Van Woensel), Denise Bibro Platform Space (New York), FiveTen Studio (Oakland), Orange Alley Projects (San Francisco), Aqua Art Fair (Miami), Irvine Contemporary (Washington, DC), and American Institute of Architects (Baltimore, MD).
The title for the show comes from a Frank O'Hara poem:
SONG
I am stuck in traffic in a taxicab
which is typical
and not just of modern life
mud clambers up the trellis of my nerves
must lovers of Eros end up with Venus
muss es sein? es muss nicht sein, I tell you
how I hate disease, it's like worrying
that comes true
and it simply must not be able to happen
in a world where you are possible
my love
nothing can go wrong for us, tell me