Biography
Ariel Kessler is a collector of stories.
At a young age Ariel developed a fondness for painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography and was mentored by Boston-based artist, Evelyn Berde. She built her first darkroom at twelve years of age. While using her late father’s Nikon F, she took photographs wherever she went. At eighteen, she moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts. There she became enraptured with small camera, street-like photography. After two years focusing on this style, she moved back to her hometown of Boston to attend the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she was mentored by some of the masters of the large-format camera and was given the opportunity to work with the infamous Polaroid 20×24 camera. She graduated with her BFA in 2010. She has studied advanced alternative photographic processes in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Savannah, Georgia.
In 2019, Ariel was invited to be an artist in residence at the Fish Factory Creative Centre of Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland.
In March 2022, Ariel will be an artist in residence at The Ou Gallery in Vancouver Island, Canada.
In June 2021, Ariel will begin graduate school to receive her Master of Fine Arts degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Ariel Kessler has exhibited her work all over the United States, and internationally in Mexico and Japan.
Her work can be found in public and private collections throughout the world.
Ariel lives and works in Watertown, Massachusetts. She spends her days working in her studio and traveling throughout the Northeast doing shows, exhibiting and selling her work.
Artist Statement
My mixed media art encompass lively, colorful imagery in a whimsical world. Inspired by stories and memories.
While my college education has been in photography, combining other traditional art mediums with an emphasis on the 'mark of the hand' have always been a passion and the basis of my. work. Utilizing found imagery and papers with painting and printmaking, I feel I have found my stride in my art making.