Mo Kessler (they/them) is a queer Southern sculptor, installation artist, and community organizer.
Centering on the social and environmental landscape of Appalachia and the South, Mo’s artwork is focused on labor as both an action and a movement, working-class visibility, and the power of objects made by hand. This work ranges in medium and scale. Mo uses regional craft techniques and the transformation of used domestic materials as a means to investigate place, class, and the politics of disposability.
Education
2007, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, MD, Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Sculpture
2021, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Art
Exhibitions
Solo Shows
2026 Happiness Is Red Emma’s Baltimore, MD
2023 CHEAP WORTH, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD
2022 Exercises in Dependency, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC
2020 Lapwork and Leftovers, Kitchenshop, Dillsboro, NC
Two-Person Shows
2024 The Work of Remembering, Montgomery Building Gallery, Spartanburg, SC
2021 Whatever Coming and Going Is, Revolve, Asheville, NC
Group Shows
2026 FIBERS. AlterWork Studios, Long Island, NY
2026 AREA 405 Tenant Exhibition, Area 405, Baltimore, MD
2026 Art in Activism, Red Emma’s, Baltimore, MD
2025 MICA Faculty Show, Meyerhoff Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2025 The Speed of Fashion, Crow’s Nest Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2024 Both/And, Revolve Asheville, NC
2024 Hard + Soft, Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton, TX
2022 Building Community, Building Power, Swords Into Ploughshares Gallery, Detroit, MI
2021 NOVA Faculty Show, NVCC Woodbridge Gallery, Woodbridge, VA
2021 Fiction of the Real, Ramp Space, Asheville, NC
2021 WCU MFA Group Show, Tracey Morgan Gallery, Asheville, NC
2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Western Carolina University Fine Arts Museum, Cullowhee, NC
2020 Hope Is A Horizon, Revolve, Asheville, NC
2020 Still Relevant, Happy Gallery Chicago, Chicago, IL
2020 ArtFields, Lake City, SC
2019 Next Wave IV, Revolve, Asheville, NC
2019 Appalachia Futures, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
2019 STREET/ART, Push Gallery, Asheville, NC
2019 SoundWave, Bascom Art Gallery, Highlands, NC
2018 Rad and Unexpected, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2018 Queering The Mountains, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Residencies
2024 Mother’s Milk, Newton, KS
2022 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Fellowships
2023-2024 Watson-Brown Southern Studies Fellowship in Arts and Letters, Spartanburg, SC
Public Practice Projects
2023-2024 The Work of Remembering Audio Tours. Created a public map and tour guide for 5 mills across the upstate of South Carolina that followed the connective actions of the Uprising of 1934, the largest textile strike in US history. Audio was made through the contributions of 21 artists, historians, labor organizers, and writers. Chapman Cultural Center and the Hub City Writers Project. Spartanburg SC.
2019-2021 No New Plastics, LIVLAB, Co-Organizer of creating a closed-loop recycling system on campus to take single-use plastics and turn them into materials to make functional ware and art objects. Western Carolina University
2020-2021 Watershed, LIVLAB, Co-Organizer of a series of performances, lectures, and studio visits conducted between Western Carolina University’s MFA and BFA students and professional regional artists. Western Carolina University
2019-2020 UKKU, Arts in Embassies, US Department of State permanent artwork commission for the US Embassy, Niamey, Niger, Western Carolina University School of Art and Design/Workingman Collective, Collaborating Artist for Courtyard Sculpture. $185K commission budget.
2018-2020 Du Quotidien, Arts in Embassies, US Department of State Commission for the US Embassy, Niamey, Niger, Abdou Moumouni University, Niamey, Niger/Western Carolina University School of Art and Design/Workingman Collective Collaborating Artist for Interior Artwork Installation. $100K commission budget.
2019 Glue: Celebrating the Unseen Women of Appalachia, LIVLAB, Co-Organizer of a panel discussion and community engagement event through Z Smith Reynolds Inclusive Public Art Grant, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, NC.
2019 LIVLAB Town Halls 1 & 2, LIVLAB, Co-Organizer of community engagement event through the Z Smith Reynolds Inclusive Public Art Grant, Sylva, NC.
2019 Draw Sylva: Community Sketchbook Project, Collaborative Artist for city-wide sketch drawings collection and exhibition. Sylva, NC
Lectures and Public Engagements
2025 Research Open Mic, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2025 Artist Talk, Rhode Island School of Design, Provincetown, RI
2025 Artist Talk, Hold This Line Till Hell Freezes Over, The Crow’s Nest, Baltimore, MD
2024 Artist Talk, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2024 Grant Writing for Artists, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA
2024 Grant Writing for Artists, Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg, SC
2024 Grant Writing for Artists, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2024 Artist Talk, Converse University, Spartanburg, SC
2023 Artist Talk, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2023 Artist Talk, Cheap Worth, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD
2022 Workshop, Making with What You Have, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC
2022 Artist Talk, Exercises in Dependency, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC
2019 Artist Talk, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC
2019 Panel Moderator Glue: Celebrating the Unseen Women of Appalachia, Cherokee, NC
2019 Graduate Research Symposium, Presenter Art & Organizing: Expanding What is Possible through Changing the Frame, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2017 Harriet Elliott Lecture Series Panelist, Women in Greensboro: Communicating for Social Change, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
Media Publications
2023 Artist Talk Magazine Issue 23
2022 Dinner Bell Magazine vol. 3
2021 God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise Zine
2020 Dinner Bell Magazine vol. 2
2020 Power Clash, “Remote Residencies with Mo Kessler of SiP Residency.”
2020 Reject Collective, Issue 1
2019 Blueridge Public Radio, “Memories Appalachian Women Are Worth Preserving.”
Awards
2026 Sondheim Art Prize, Semi-Finalist, Baltimore, MD
2024 Tend Fellowship, Walkaway House, North Adams, MA
2024 Mother’s Milk Scholarship, Mother’s Milk, Newton, KS
2023 Southern Studies Fellowship, Watson Brown Foundation, Spartanburg, SC
2021 Windgate University Fellows Scholarship, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2019 Windgate University Fellows Scholarship, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2018 Graduate Scholarship, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2003 Academic and Merit Scholarships, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Grants Received
2022 BG&E Small Business Grant, $20,000, Paradise Labs, Baltimore, MD
2020 Graduate Summer Research Grant, $3,000, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2020 UNC Systems Undergraduate Research Grant, $12,000, LivLab, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2020 Campus Theme Grant, $1,000, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2019 WCU’s School of Art and Design’s Catalyst Grant, $5,500, LivLab, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2018 Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Inclusive Public Art Grant, $5,00, Semi-finalist, LivLab, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
Teaching
2024-Current Adjunct Professor, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (Color Design, Contemporary Visual Language, Fabrication, Independent Studio)
2023- Current Adjunct Professor, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC (Contemporary Art History, Renaissance to Modernism Art History, Women and Gender Studies in Art History)
2021-2022 Adjunct Professor, Northern Virginia Community College, Woodbridge, VA (Fundamentals of Design 1, Fundamentals of Design 2, Drawing 1, Sculpture 1)
2019-2020 Instructor of Record, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC ( 3D Design, Intro to Sculpture, and LIVLAB Public Practice)