Bri Chesler

Seattle, WA

Art on view at the Bellevue Arts Museum

Bri Chesler is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on three-dimensional design and sculptural installation. During her undergraduate studies at the Kansas City Art Institute, a strong interest in transparency and molten media led her to explore glass. Chesler’s work is known for its nontraditional approach, combining different glass techniques with other media. Drawing from the wild and erotic character of the natural environment, her work reflects on cultural obsessions of beauty and their relationships to internal anatomies. By fusing similar elements found in biology and botany, she creates forms that “flirt” with the audience, exploring ideas of intimacy and desire. Bri Chesler has been featured at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington and was a 2019 Pilchuck Emerging Artist-in-Residence. She was also the recipient of the 2020 Chihuly Gardens and Glass Anniversary Scholarship, a 2020 Hauberg Fellow, and has been invited to teach at Pilchuck Glass School in 2022.

Tit-Tasty

Desire has shaped our insatiable drive and behavior. It’s a part of the human experience that is both cultural and biological. We have become hedonistic and overcome with excess; using abundance to fill the voids left behind by our superficial fixations. Inspired by moments of intimacy that toe the line between our carnally-driven desires and the hunger for empathy, I try to capture the intoxicating lure of indulgence and the vulnerability it inflicts on our fragile nature. Drawing from the wild and erotic character of the natural environment, I abstract forms found both in biology and botany, reflecting on cultural obsessions of beauty and desire. By creating sculptures that play with and mock viewers’ inability to control their attraction, I aim to capture the visceral experience of our carnal nature as freakishly alien and indifferent, unveiling the awkward, comical, and grotesque moments of desire by flirting with the introverted perversions of being human.

Tit-Tasty is a reflection on the untamed and predatory nature of seduction. This piece is visually inspired by carnivorous plants. The main form is made up of elements found in botany while the smaller more subtle details are realistic representations of the human body. Conceptually, the idea of the “luring,” or drawing someone in with desire, is what I’m trying to embody in this piece. I want to persuade the audience to give into the temptation of seduction by being forced to examine the work closely, only then to realize they are prey. This piece is meant to play with the idea of how seduction can turn dangerous, even when we least expect it.