David Kessler
- Film / Video Arts 2026
David Scott Kessler (b. 1975, New Jersey USA) explores how sense of place shapes personal mythology, revealing intricate and uncanny connections between ecology, storytelling, and cultural identity.
As an interdisciplinary artist, he weaves documentary film and narrative with narrative, photography, drawing, and computer graphics to explore complex relationships with the natural world.
David studied at Parsons School of Design at The New School, University of the Arts, Constantijn Huygens College of the Arts, Kampen Netherlands, and received a BFA from Montclair University. David has presented art and film at the Michener Art Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Fotografiska, NYC, Rooftop Summer Series, NYC, Delaware Contemporary, Memesis, and Lighthouse Film Festival with honors presented by Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, and New Jersey Film Festival.
Kessler’s ecologically focused work has also led him to present and curate projects in The Academy of Natural Sciences and environmentally essential sites with work related to his feature documentary, The Pine Barrens. Kessler was awarded a Pew Arts and Heritage Individual Artists Fellowship and was a Flaherty Film and Fogo Island Arts Fellow.
David studied at Parsons School of Design at The New School, University of the Arts, Constantijn Huygens College of the Arts, Kampen Netherlands, and received a BFA from Montclair University. David has presented art and film at the Michener Art Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Fotografiska, NYC, Rooftop Summer Series, NYC, Delaware Contemporary, Memesis, and Lighthouse Film Festival with honors presented by Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival, and New Jersey Film Festival.
Kessler’s ecologically focused work has also led him to present and curate projects in The Academy of Natural Sciences and environmentally essential sites with work related to his feature documentary, The Pine Barrens. Kessler was awarded a Pew Arts and Heritage Individual Artists Fellowship and was a Flaherty Film and Fogo Island Arts Fellow.