about me

When painting she uses a multitude of materials, mixed and on top of each other, sometimes sanded away again, until they merge into one image. The carrier, whether canvas or metal, is just as important as the paint. Canvas is stretched with force in such a way that it – literally- starts to undulate, metal is scratched.
The paintings always show movement, movement in the form, which changes when you slide your eyes over it, and movement in the play of colors and material and yet…they posses a silent power.

‘Little treasures’, that is how she describes her jewelry; miniature sculptures composed of age old and contemporary, often worthless materials, brazenly combined and not bound to the traditions of jewelry making. They express her feelings and thoughts about life. They invite touching and they tell a story, summarized in titles justifying their existence.

Whether it is a painting, an object or a piece of jewelry, Kessler invents her own language by questioning material and techniques, continuous searching for new possibilities.
Material is the vehicle of her thoughts. All her work is inextricably linked and informs each other.

a time of seeing

Film made by Paul de Ruijter commissioned by artist Beppe Kessler and CODA museum Apeldoorn (NL) for the exhibition ‘A Time of Seeing – 40 years Beppe Kessler’.

beppe kessler
Amsterdam 1952

education
Gerrit Rietveld Academy (1979)
textile department

grants & awards

2019

grant AFK, Amsterdam (NL)

2012

2 months  ‘artist in residence’. Idar-Oberstein (DE)

1997 and 2009

Herbert Hofmann Prize  Munich (DE)

2004

Support from Prins Bernhard Culture Fund (NL)

1997

3 months ‘Artist in Residence’  Wenen (AT)

1996 / 2001 / 2004

stipendium BKBV fund (NL)

1996 / 2004

’the best book designs’ nomination (NL)

workshops & lectures

2023
coaching, Hand Shake Project, HS-8 (NZ)
 
2023
workshop handwriting, Jewellery-Linking Bodies Department,  Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (NL)
2019

workshop material matters, Hiko Mizuno, Osaka (JP)

workshop 3D in wood/textile, Jewellery-Linking Bodies Department, Rietveld Academy (NL)

2015 / 2017

workshop handwriting and material matters, L’Institut Jeanne Toussaint, Brussels (BE)

2016

workshop material matters, Hiko Mizuno, Tokio (JP)

2013

two workshops, Schmuck Gestaltung, Fachhochschule, Idar Oberstein (DE)

2012

lecture, works, Fachhochschule, Idar Oberstein (DE)

2007

lecture, wood, Kath Libbert Jewellery, Bradford (GB)
1999 / 2007
lecture, works, Academy Göteborg and Konstfackskolan, Ädellab, Stockholm (SE)
1995

lecture, works, Fachhochschule, Düsseldorf (DE)

1992 / 1993 / 1994

lecture, Maastricht Institute of Arts (NL)

1993

lecture, Studium Generale, Noordelijke Hogeschool, Leeuwarden (NL)

lecture, Maastricht Institute of Arts (NL)

lecture, Akademie für Angewandte Kunst, Wien (AT)

teaching

1995 – 2005
guest teacher, master study Vrije Vormgeving, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam (NL)
1994 – 1999
teacher, Textile and Fashion Department, Maastricht Institute of Arts (NL)
2000-2002

teacher, Industrial Design, University of Technology, Delft (NL)

1985 – 1987

teacher, Fashion Department, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht (NL)

1984 – 1992
teacher, Textile Department, Hanze Hogeschool, formerly Academy Minerva, Groningen (NL)

1982 – 1983

teacher, Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de kunsten, formerly d’Witte Leli, Amsterdam (NL)

Privacystatement
Privacyverklaring

for ever

What if you suddenly hear that you are ill…
What do you do afterwards, when you are totally ok again, what do you want to say and make, how to start?
Come back.

What do you do with all those half things that lie in drawers, stored in boxes: damaged, broken, kept, worthless and of value.

Jewelry that you no longer wear, made of gold or silver, worn links, broken clasps. There are memories…. A medallion of horn, inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl, worn daily as a teenager in their heyday, the 1960s, just like the gold link bracelet.
A precious coral brooch you never wore, too much of a jewel, too fine.
Cufflinks, received as a keepsake.

But also a damaged Japanese lacquer box, an ebony violin key.
A milk tooth, no idea whose.
A jat that you don’t know how you got it.
Shells and pieces of coral collected by your mother in Indonesia in the late 1940s.
Tin figures.
The charm chain full of silver creatures, people, things, objects around your neck, each with their meaning. Ringing worn and cherished.

I’m putting them all back in the spotlight. I prefer to immortalize them forever.
I isolate or disassemble them, I combine them and give them a second life in a composition with pearls and rabbit droppings sprinkled in between. Together they grow into new, tiny stories in the form of a brooch. New life.

© Beppe Kessler