Ananda Kesler Born 1976 Haifa, Israel. Ananda Kesler has exhibited her paintings in galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Galerie Metanoia in Paris, France; Galleria Il Sottoportego, in Venice, Italy; LACDA, Corridor 2122 Gallery, Crussell Fine Art Gallery, in California; David Barnett Gallery in Wisconsin; ICON Gallery, Teeple Hansen Gallery, Corner House Gallery, and Gallery 56 in Iowa. Kesler has exhibited her work at the FIGGE Art Museum in Davenport and the Blanden Art Museum in Iowa, and has an upcoming exhibit at the Freeport Art Museum in Illinois. Ananda Kesler was born in 1976 in Haifa, Israel. At the age of twelve, her family immigrated to the U.S. and settled in the Midwest in a unique community based on practices such as meditation, yoga, and sustainable living. In 2002 she received her BA in fine art from the University of Iowa, and has continued her art education at Peralta College in California and in Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. Ananda has also studied textile design at Rajamangala College of Art in Thailand, and with master artisans in India and Indonesia. Kesler’s unconventional education- rooted in eastern philosophy, spirituality and metaphysics, has led her to search for an intersection, a meeting point of form, beauty, and the mysteries of the esoteric and unknown. Her abstract paintings might remind one of feelings that haven’t coalesced into language, places long forgotten, of memories or dreams. Ananda currently lives and paints in Fairfield, Iowa. Education: 2002 University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. BA in Fine Art, Continuing Education: 2006-10 Teeple Art Institute, Fairfield, Iowa. Painting and Drawing, 2003-05 Peralta College, Berkeley, California. Textile and Surface Design. 2001 Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy. Printmaking. Exhibitions 2010 Teeple-Hansen Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa. Women’s Show 2009 ICON, Iowa Contemporary Art Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa. Icon Artists 2009 Corner-House Gallery*, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 2009 LACDA, Los Angeles, California. Snap to Grid 2009 Emerald Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa. Light of God 2009 Teeple-Hansen Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa. Group Show 2008 Emerald Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa. International Small Works Show. 2007 Henderson Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa. Things Local. 1999 Unity Gallery, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa. 2001Galleria Il Sottoportego, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy. Artist Statement: This body of work is inspired by memories, dreams, subtle feelings difficult to describe with words, by my own inner landscapes and inner worlds. I seek to give color to the ineffable, to describe that which is formless. I wish to explore the stuff which dreams are made of. Pictorial elements might translate as incongruous shapes that sometimes come forward, sometimes recede into the far distance, they may recall distant cities, hazy landscapes, or bodies of water lost under early morning mist. They may play with the viewer’s memory or subconscious and not recall anything but a nebulous existence. Through the process of painting I aim to capture an ephemeral glimpse of the mystery and translate it into color and form. I aspire to dive into these mysterious realms as if in search of the one universal realm to which all things and people are connected. Conversely, I hope that my work may become a roadmap capable of leading the viewer to encounter this often evasive, sometimes forgotten experience of a transcending unity and universality. Artist Statement Ananda Kesler December 2009 This body of work is inspired by memories, dreams, subtle feelings difficult to describe with words, by my own inner landscapes and inner worlds. I seek to give color to the ineffable, to describe that which is formless. I wish to explore the stuff which dreams are made of. Pictorial elements might translate as incongruous shapes that sometimes come forward, sometimes recede into the far distance, they may recall distant cities, hazy landscapes, or bodies of water lost under early morning mist. They may play with the viewer’s memory or subconscious and not recall anything but a nebulous existence. Through the process of painting I aim to capture an ephemeral glimpse of the mystery and translate it into color and form. I aspire to dive into these mysterious realms as if in search of the one universal realm to which all things and people are connected. Conversely, I hope that my work may become a roadmap capable of leading the viewer to encounter this often evasive, sometimes forgotten experience of a transcending unity and universality.