Daniel Kersh

Works in Brooklyn, NY

BIO

Daniel Kersh is a queer/zen buddhist visual artist, lighting designer, creative director, and dancer/choreographer residing in NYC.

Daniel Kersh is a queer/zen buddhist visual artist, lighting designer, creative director, and dancer/choreographer residing in NYC. Daniel studied lighting design &technology and 3D & installation studio art at The University of Arizona and theSanta Reparata International School of Art. He has studied dance at L’accademia Europea and various schools around New York City. Daniel’s strong passion for light,art, and movement grew into a breadth of work in lighting design, installations, and performance. With the mission of blending these mediums, he formed Studio Daniel Kersh in 2015 as an outlet for his work.Daniel is currently a freelance associate lighting designer and drafts person at Arc3design under Al Crawford. Notable credits include designing a showpackage for Azamara Club Cruises, acting as Associate Designer at events forGoogle Hardware, the Women’s Association, and Youtube Fashion.This past year hehas participated in artistic residencies at BRIC Arts and Media and Center forPerformance Research. Recently he produced a virtual solo exhibition, “LookingDeeply\Refracting Duality\Arizona.2020”. His work has been seen at the Lionel Rombach Gallery, Santa Reparata International Gallery, Dusk Music Festival,Breaking Ground Contemporary Dance Festival, Ailey Citigroup Theater, the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, and Arizona Repertory Theatre. He has created works forColumbia Ballet Collaborative, the New York Butoh Institute, Artifact Dance Project,Sam Watson, Jordan Lloyd, and he is the resident lighting artist with Hawkins dance.

"My work describes a transformation of suffering with the use of light as a material. It indulges in the ethereal while being grounded in perception. The natural beauty of the subtlety of light is something to be reveled in. It is refreshing, calming, and brings peace and joy. We perceive reality through light, when we see, we see with the entirety of our past experience. If light is manipulated, the nature of that reality can be questioned and we are brought closer to the central truths of our perceptions. My work aims to reveal complex relationships between the materiality of light, form, and space to induce the viewer into deep looking for understanding and open up channels in the mind for conversation. The philosophy behind my work comes from ideas of Zen. In its essence, it is the art of truly seeing the nature of one’s own being. My work invites viewers to practice stopping, breathing, and looking deeply. We must look at what we can do in order to prevent the amount of misunderstanding, hatred, and violence in our society we see is able to be brought out at any moment. Insight liberates. By practicing peace together, we make peace available. My work is an effort to water beautiful seeds of peace in order to surmount the seeds of war, of suffering, of violence, and fear."