Kirsten Geisler

Kirsten Geisler studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie from 1985 to 1989 and completed two years of postgraduate study at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam from 1991 to 1993. She is a founding member of the Grafisch Atelier in Haarlem and of medi@haarlem, the first Dutch institute for media art in Haarlem, where she was also chairwoman from 1992 to 2004. Since 2000, Kirsten Geisler has been creating and realising architectural and interior design projects in Germany and abroad.

Kirsten Geisler was the first media artist to develop 3D-modelled avatars, the homo virtualis ("Who are you’" 1995–96, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, Prof. Nadja Thalmann). In the series "Dream of Beauty" (1997–2003, in cooperation with the ZKM LAB and a Fraunhofer Institute), she confronts viewers with artificially generated, standardised beauty. She reflects on the individual's struggle to match their own appearance and essence with idealised, ultimately externally determined role models.

In 2023, the ZKM | Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe took over Kirsten Geisler's artistic oeuvre with more than thirty computer-animated, interactive installations. Her pioneering work in the field of computer-generated 3D sculptures, spanning several creative phases, is being preserved and archived for the first time by the media conservation department and the Laboratory for Antiquated Video Systems.

Education
1984-85 Studied at the Vrije Academie, The Hague; 1991 Studied at the Rijksacademie Amsterdam

Other activities
since 1992 Chairperson of the Foundation Grafisches Atelier Haarlem, Institut für grafische und mediale Künste

Scholarships
1991/95 Scholarship from the Beeldende Kunst Foundation; 1995 Project Scholarship from the Province of North-Holland

Solo exhibitions (selection)
1993 Galerie Kaaj, Ijmuiden; »W 139«, Center for Modern Art, Amsterdam

Group exhibitions (selection)
1991 »Twintig in de Hallen«, Dependance Frans Hals Museum, Vishal, Haarlem; 1994 Fotobiennale Rotterdam, Galerie Phoebus, Rotterdam; 1995 Leopold-Hoesch Museum, Düren; »Tekens van licht en warmte«, Boterhal Hoorn; »Change«, Vishal Haarlem and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; 1996 »World Wide Video Festival«, Gerneente Museum, The Hague; 1997 »Das neue Gesicht«, Kunstverein Konstanz1998 Galerie Franck + Schulte, Berlin; 1998 Galerie Franck + Schulte, Berlin; 1999 »Video Virtuale Foto Fiktionale«, Museum Ludwig, Köln; 2000 »Ich ist etwas anderes«, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf; 2001 »Virtual Beauties«, Stadtmuseum Jena; 2002 »Das zweite Gesicht«, Deutsches Museum, München; 2003 »Fuckin’ Trendy«, Kunsthalle Nürnberg; 2004 »Switched On«, Klein Artworks, Chicago; 2005 »Summer of Beauty«, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam; 2006 »Dutch Installation Art«, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art (Muzeul Național de Artă Contemporană), Bukarest; 2007 Chelsea Art Museum, New York; 2008 »Die Sammlung«, Kunstmuseum Bremerhaven; 2009 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; 2010 »Technology Requested«, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam; 2011 »gateways. Kunst und vernetzte Kultur«, Kumu, Tallinn; 2012 »Zeitgespenster«, Museum Morsbroich; 2013 »Shoes or No Shoes«, Museum Kruisem; 2015 »Mythos Schönheit«, Landesmuseum Linz; 2019 »Trouble in Paradies«, Kunsthal Rotterdam; 2020 »Jubiläums-Sammlungspräsentation«, Kunstverein Bremerhaven; 2021 »Miskende Helden«, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; 2022 »Writing the History of the Future«, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe; 2023 »35. Jubiläum«, Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam; 2024 »Pebbles – reflecting to navigate«, Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam

Literature (selection)
Geisler, Kirsten: »My Warmth in Absentia«, Haarlem 1993; Bergkerk, Deventer; Leopold-Hoesch Museum, Düren (ed.): »Verschijining/Erscheinung«, Düren 1994; Mediopolis Berlin e.V. (ed.): »9. Videofest Berlin 1996«, Berlin 1996; »World Wide Video Festival Den Haag«, The Hague 1996; Lehmann, Ulrike; Kunstverein Konstanz (ed.): »Das neue Gesicht«, Konstanz 1997