Beppe Kessler (1952, Amsterdam) is a visual artist, contemporary jewellery maker and
painter who currently lives and works in the Netherlands.
Kessler graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1979, with a degree in textile
art and industrial textile design. She has always been attracted by drawing and
painting, but also harbours a strong sensitivity for (everyday) materials, granting her
the nickname ‘material girl’. Whether it is wood, stone, paint, or linen, Kessler is known
to stretch the material to its limits, constantly breaking and re-making to create
something new, all the while inventing her own techniques.
Kessler’s paintings are subtle but also harbour a silent power. The carrier of the paint,
the canvas, is equally as important as the paint itself. Kessler damages the canvas by
chafing, piercing or shredding it before it is stretched, creating a signature ‘wavy’
shape. Her paintings are inextricably connected to her jewellery work, with both
emanating from and informing one another.
Beppe Kessler’s work has been well-received worldwide, and is part of the collections
of international museums such as the Schmuck Museum in Pforzheim, Germany,
Röhsska Museet in Göteborg, Sweden, Cooper-Hewitt in New York, US and Museum
of Fine Arts in Houston, US. Nationally, her work has been collected by and presented
in various renowned Dutch museums such as the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum
in Amsterdam, CODA Museum in Apeldoorn, the Textielmuseum in Tilburg and
Museum Arnhem. Kessler has twice received the prestigious Herbert Hofmann Preis
for her work in jewellery, in 1997 and 2009. In November 2019, a retrospective
exhibition of her work will open at the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn.
painter who currently lives and works in the Netherlands.
Kessler graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1979, with a degree in textile
art and industrial textile design. She has always been attracted by drawing and
painting, but also harbours a strong sensitivity for (everyday) materials, granting her
the nickname ‘material girl’. Whether it is wood, stone, paint, or linen, Kessler is known
to stretch the material to its limits, constantly breaking and re-making to create
something new, all the while inventing her own techniques.
Kessler’s paintings are subtle but also harbour a silent power. The carrier of the paint,
the canvas, is equally as important as the paint itself. Kessler damages the canvas by
chafing, piercing or shredding it before it is stretched, creating a signature ‘wavy’
shape. Her paintings are inextricably connected to her jewellery work, with both
emanating from and informing one another.
Beppe Kessler’s work has been well-received worldwide, and is part of the collections
of international museums such as the Schmuck Museum in Pforzheim, Germany,
Röhsska Museet in Göteborg, Sweden, Cooper-Hewitt in New York, US and Museum
of Fine Arts in Houston, US. Nationally, her work has been collected by and presented
in various renowned Dutch museums such as the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum
in Amsterdam, CODA Museum in Apeldoorn, the Textielmuseum in Tilburg and
Museum Arnhem. Kessler has twice received the prestigious Herbert Hofmann Preis
for her work in jewellery, in 1997 and 2009. In November 2019, a retrospective
exhibition of her work will open at the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn.
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