DAVID SCOTT KESSLER
Philadelphia, PA
Email: dskessler@gmail.com
Phone: 267-242-4569
Website: davidskessler.work
Born, Union, NJ
SUMMARY
Interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker working at the intersection of ecology, perception, and sense of place. My practice centers on experimental and documentary film, expanded through site-responsive screenings, live scores, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Through long-term, place-based research and non-linear processes, my work emphasizes sustained attention, shifting perspective, and immersive viewing experiences that invite reflection on human and nonhuman systems.
GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
(Support for long-term, place-based, and interdisciplinary projects)
Pew Center for Arts and Heritage — Individual Artist Fellowship, 2015
Pew Residency Fellowship, 2020
Flaherty Film Seminar Fellowship, 2015
Creative Capital - On Our Radar, 2015
RESIDENCIES
(Ecological research, experimental film production, and site-responsive work)
2026 — Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Oregon
2023 — Fogo Island Arts, Newfoundland
2018 — Absolute Art Space, Tainan, Taiwan
2016 — Officina Stamperia del Notaio Residency, Tusa, Sicily
2013 — NES Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & SCREENINGS
(Including live-scored, outdoor, and site-specific presentations)
2023 — Stockton University Gallery, NJ
Eleven Fires — duel channel installation
2022 — Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA
The Pine Barrens Project — artist, producer, curator
The Pine Barrens — live-scored screening with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra
Eleven Fires — Site-responsive installation
2021 — Fotografiska, NYC
The Pine Barrens — live-scored screening in support of Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest
2019 — Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
Rooftop Films Summer Series — outdoor, live-scored screening of The Pine Barrens
2019 — Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
20/92 Video Festival — Amis Fishing at Night — Site-responsive installation
2018 — Tainan University of Technology, Taiwan
The Compound Eye of Spirit and Phenomenon — Interdisciplinary exhibition and artist talk
2017 — Harun Farocki Institute, Berlin, Germany
Farocki Now – A Temporary Academy
2017 — Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival, PA
Short film Nine Fires
2017 — Princeton Environmental Film Festival, NJ
Feature film The Pine Barrens — live performances with the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra
2017 — Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
Polaris: Northern Explorations in Contemporary Art — etching included in Due North portfolio
2017 — Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Due South — short film installation The Peasants Shouldn’t Know How Good It Is
2016 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Open Video Call — Six Fires
2015 — Rooftop Films Summer Series, Brooklyn, NY
Short film Lopapeysa
2015 — Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
The Usable Earth — curated by Kristen Neville Taylor
2015 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Free For All: Lord Whimsy Drops Dead — animator/collaborator (Allen Crawford, Ben Warfield)
2014 — Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
Due North — four-channel 100-ft video installation Lopi; short film Lopapeysa
2013 — Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland
1759 — video installation The Voice of the Oracle of Neptune
2010 — Dilworth Plaza, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Underground — video installation The Voice of the Oracle of Neptune
2008 — International House Philadelphia, PA
Shadow World — solo video & painting installation
2007 — Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Public screening of documentary If You Break The Skin You Must Come In: The Zoe Strauss Documentary
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
(Public-facing interdisciplinary ecological programming)2022 — The Pine Barrens Project, Academy of Natural Sciences
Curator, producer — interdisciplinary exhibition combining film, field research, and ecological documentation.
2016 & 2019 — Middle of Nowhere, Whitesbog Preservation Trust
Curator and Producer — interdisciplinary ecological art, music, and film event exploring place-based narratives and environmental perception. Co-curated with Kristen Neville Taylor (2019) and Jen Brown (2016).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
Feature Films
(All films directed, produced, shot, and edited by the artist unless otherwise noted.)
2019 — The Pine Barrens
2007 — If You Break The Skin You Must Come InShort Films
2025 — Twinning Of Islands
2025 — Welcome To Low Level Radioactive Waste Storage Site
2024 — The Peasants Shouldn’t Know
2023 — Eleven Fires
2014 — LopapeysaMusic Videos
2013 — I Fell In Love With a Feeling / So Far So Long — official music videos for Nightlands
2014 — Every Time the Sun Comes Up — Sharon Van Etten
AWARDS (FILM)
Best Documentary — New Jersey Film Festival, 2020
Excellence Award — Veritas Film Festival, 2020
Emerging Filmmaker — Princeton Environmental Film Festival, 2017
Best Documentary — Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, 2017
SELECTED WRITING & PRESS
Lost in the Pine Barrens: An Essay on Middle of Nowhere, Title Magazine, 2021
New Jersey’s One Million Acres of Undeveloped, Otherworldly Land, Hyperallergic, 2017
Magic In The Pines, Philadelphia Inquirer, cover, 2017
EDUCATION
Montclair University — BFA, 1998–2001
Constantijn Huygens College of the Arts, Kampen, Netherlands — 1997
University of the Arts, Philadelphia — 1996–1997
Parsons School of Design — AAS Illustration, 1994–1995
