Karey Kessler
Karey Kessler creates paintings that map invisible forces — ecological, cosmic, and spiritual—through imagined cartography. Her process begins with hand-drawn maps on mulberry paper inspired by road maps and topographic surveys. These lines also evoke wood grain, wood-boring beetle marks, and ripples in water. Then, like a cartographer, she labels areas — not with real locations, but where marks and colors evoke feelings, thoughts, and memories. The words include grief for vanishing wilderness and environmental destruction, awe at the depth of geologic time and existential musings on why we are here and what will the future bring.
Karey Kessler
- email: karey.kessler@gmail.com
- website: kareykessler.com
- Instagram: @kareykessler
- phone: 206.518.7080
- Facebook: Karey Kessler Studio
Exhibitions
Karey Kessler, Soo Hong, Kalina Winska, Teresa Getty | Sky of the Mind
October 1 – 31, 2026
Seattle Art Fair 2026 | Booth B01
July 23 – 26, 2026
Karey Kessler | the Where
September 4 – 27, 2025
Seattle Art Fair 2025 | Booth B01
July 17 – 20, 2025
Karey Kessler, Aaliyah Gupta, JoEllen Wang, Tara Tamaribuchi | Site/Non-Site
May 2 – June 1, 2024
Karey Kessler | this underlying structure
September 7– 30, 2023
Karey Kessler | Solastalgia
September 1 — October 1, 2022 First Thursday Art Walk September 1, 2022 5-8pmArtist Talk
Seattle Art Fair | July 21-24, 2022
July 21 – 24, 2022
Karey Kessler | Imagined Topographies of a Vanishing Wilderness
September 2 - October 2, 2021
Q&A with William E.Marsh, Karey Kessler, David Traylor, Anna Macrae, and Miha Sarani
Q&A with the artists
Karey Kessler, Anna Macrae, Miha Sarani and David Traylor with William Marsh and music by The Vanity Host | Lost and Found
May 6 – 29, 2021 The May showing at SHIFT GALLERY features artists Karey Kessler,
Karey Kessler | here is the Place
March 5 - May 2, 2020
Karey Kessler
Exhibitions