David T. Kessler

Although he is a longtime resident of Phoenix, Arizona, Kessler launched his career in San Francisco in the mid 1970s, at a time when a significant school of photo-realism was emerging in the Bay Area.

[1] Not long after graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1975, Kessler gained significant attention for his photo-realist paintings, specifically a body of work known as the "Ruined Slide Series.

"[4] Tannous' favorable review of his 1977 solo exhibition at Gallery 4 in Alexandria, Virginia expanded Kessler's audience beyond the Southwest, catapulting his career.

[5] The Ruined Slide Series was shown in a number of venues across the United States, and later in the 2003 exhibition "Hyperrealismes USA 1965-1975" at the Strasbourg Museum of Contemporary Art in France, which featured works by Chuck Close, Malcolm Morley, and Audrey Flack as well.

This led him to experiment with Plexiglass and the types of illusions that are created when a landscape appears through the "window" of a painted sheet of clear plastic.