source: artyaleedu

Mr. Kersels was born in Los Angeles and attended UCLA for both his undergraduate and graduate educations, receiving a BA in art in 1984 and an MFA in 1995. His body of work ranges from the collaborative performances with the group SHRIMPS (1984-1993) to large-scale sculptures such as Tumble Room (2001). His interest in machines, entropy, sound, and dissolution has produced work that examines the dynamic tension between failure and success, the individual and the group, and the thin line between humor and misfortune. Since 1994, Mr. Kersels’ objects and projects have been exhibited at museums both nationally and internationally, including the 1997 Whitney Biennial, the Pompidou Center, MOCA Los Angeles, the Tinguely Museum, Kunsthalle Bern, and the Getty Museum. A survey of his work, entitled “Heavyweight Champion,” was organized and exhibited by the Tang Museum in 2007 and the Santa Monica Museum in 2008. His room-sized sculpture, 5 Songs, and an accompanying performance series, Live on 5 Songs, was on view in the 2010 Whitney Biennial of American Art. Before joining the faculty at Yale he was a faculty member and Co-Director of the Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts. Mr. Kersels was appointed Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Sculpture at Yale in 2012.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
sourcee: uclavisitingartistsblogspot

Martin Kersels is a Los Angeles-based artist who works with sculpture, audio, and performance. He has shown work in one-person exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Torino, and Bern. In September 2008 Martin Kersels’ mid-career survey exhibition, Heavyweight Champion, was shown in the Santa Monica Museum of Art and at The Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York. Kersels’ work has been shown in numerous group shows such as Departures: 11 Artists at the Getty, Under Destruction at the Tinguely Museum, Dionysiac at the Pompidou Center, and at the 1997 and 2010 Whitney Biennials. His work is held in various public collections including MOMA, The J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, MOCA Los Angeles, The Pompidou Center, and the Norton Family Foundation. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2008. He is a graduate of UCLA from 1995 and currently teaches in the Art Program at CalArts.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: flashartonlineit

Il linguaggio dissacrante e anticonvenzionale di Martin Kersels, che affonda le sue radici nelle forme d’arte radicali degli anni Sessanta e Settanta, è caratterizzato dalla commistione di elementi della cultura alta e bassa, da spunti teoretici e da materiali corrivi e degradati.

L’artista, nato a Los Angeles nel 1960, ha realizzato per la personale torinese alcune sculture meccaniche, fotografie e disegni ispirati all’icona più controversa ed eversiva della cultura underground: Iggy Pop, il magnetico rocker interprete del malessere della società, celebre per le sue performance sul palco. La sua era una musica ruvida e malata che, priva di speranza e utopia, scivolava nella decadenza, nella perdizione e nel nichilismo. Nel progetto “Fat Iggy”, Kersels decostruisce l’icona di Iggy Pop per elaborarne una rinnovata mitologia.

La decadenza del corpo grasso con cui il cantante viene qui rappresentato lo riconduce dal mito alla vita, mentre l’immagine del diamante che campeggia al centro dello spazio espositivo fa da contraltare al percorso della star. L’algida e intaccabile bellezza della pietra nasce infatti dal suo lungo e silente viaggio nel ventre della terra. Del clamore, legato ad apparizioni effimere, non restano che frammenti, frantumi di specchio dislocati nella sala, incapaci di restituire un’immagine armonica e unitaria.
Jenny Dogliani