Val Kessler, "8 yachts (in nein achts): An American in Italy," April 5- May 5 2024
opening
Friday April 5, 6-9pm

Val Kessler: “8 yachts (in nein achts): An American in Italy. April 5- June 5, 2024

Redundant Beach

211 SE Madison St. Unit B28

(basement) Portland, OR 97214

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In late 2023, the 34-year-old artist Val Kessler went vagabonding across Italy. In the cafés of Milan and Florence where he spent most of his days, he was surprised to find that all the Italian artists wanted to discuss was Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen, the bad boys of German art in the eighties. As it happens, Kessler had spent the last year attempting to develop a painterly style that could match those German greats. He had reached a dead-end and hoped that a trip to Italy might reset his mind. In the seventies, Kippenberger had similarly vacationed to Italy while contemplating his own practice in relation to the painter Gerhard Richter. As Kessler hitchhiked from Venice to Rimini, on to Naples and finally to Florence, he—like Kippenberger before him—snapped photographs on a small handheld camera. These images recorded fleeting moments from his day: meals he shared with strangers, tourists, artworks, laborers, and advertisements. More than anything however, were photographs of yachts. 

 

“These monstrosities come floating in like royal retinue. Little minions on dingies scuttle out and lay claim over whatever stretch of beach they choose,” he wrote to his parents. “I am annoyed yet intrigued.” Information about Kessler’s trip comes from letters to his parents in Nevada, and notes jotted in 4x6 notebooks. “I feel a tinge of jealousy. I could do great work on a yacht and maybe even become the artist I have always dreamed of becoming. They are the filthy child of American imperialism, sure, but I could shape them for good, I am certain.” His fixation with yachts fit his own personal quest to “become” Kippenberger, a difficult task given that the power of Kippenberger’s art—“mostly inscrutable,” he lamented to his parents—was embroiled in the German artist’s carefully cultivated cult of personality. To make matters worse, Kessler did not reside in Berlin or New York City but the comparatively parochial setting of Portland, Oregon, where few even knew who Kippenberger or Oehlen were. 

 

As illustrated by today’s exhibition, Kessler has come a long way. Nine snapshots from his trip have been transformed into the paintings that make up the exhibit: “8 yachts in nein achts: Pictures from an American in Italy.” Despite the title, there are no images of yachts—at least not explicitly. Nor do the paintings appear stylistically unified, despite their sequential titling. Kessler offers a convoluted explanation for these peculiarities: “8 yachts in ‘nein’ (no) eights embeds empty consumption within a grand structure—just like a yacht. Feast your eyes on nothing!” There are in fact 9 yacht paintings instead of 8, perhaps because ‘nein achts’ can be punned across language as “nine eights,” “no eights,” or even “nine acts” (nein achts). Kessler explains this punning quite simply: “The 8 yachts have to do with naming and poetry.” The sound of 8 carries the caloric load of the word ate. Consequently, he concludes, in “the throat-clearing German word acht, you have just consumed or ‘eight’ a yacht and are regurgitating it. It gets stuck in your throat.”