Jon Kessler (American, b. 1957) is a Contemporary multi-media artist, best known for his work in kinetic sculpture and installation. Building complex, exposed mechanisms that include robotic figures, security cameras, and old television monitors, his recent work has been described as having a post-9/11 sense of anxiety and awareness of governmental surveillance. His 2005 exhibition The Palace at 4 a.m., titled after a Giacometti sculpture, depicted a surreal vision of Saddam Hussein’s palace ransacked by American forces, and addressed the war on terror through dystopian imagery, found objects, and mechanical sculpture.

Kessler received his BFA from SUNY at Purchase in 1980 and also studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He has had numerous solo exhibitions, including with the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and the Drawing Center in New York, NY. His work is also collected by many prominent intuitions, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN; The Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY. He was also featured in the 1985 Whitney Biennale, and is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1983 and 1985, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant in 2000. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and is a professor of visual art at Columbia University.