.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
With humor, playfulness, and insight, Joel Mesler distills complex emotions into collage-like scenes, creating a documentary of daily life that is both relatable and his own. He often uses surprising juxtapositions in his imagery to pursue the truth of our complicated times. To Life is a loaded celebration, one that acknowledges our transient and fragile nature. It recalls a central number of the same name from the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof, itself a meditation on joy and loss. Honoring the beauty and transience of life in the face of an uncertain future has always been the function of art. The background of To Life is populated by Mesler’s signature banana leaf motifs that were inspired by the wallpaper of the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel in his native Los Angeles. It is reminiscent of the lush imagery of Paul Gauguin or Henri Rousseau, but in the place of figures is text, carefully painted with the blockishness of a neon sign. A generous drink, blue and white like Chinese porcelain, becomes a vortex comprised of Mesler’s layered strokes, and the eye of the storm looks back at us winkingly.
Unsurprisingly, Rashid Johnson has noted that Mesler’s “palette is beautiful” (B. Kachka, “How an Art Dealer Became an Up-and-Coming Painter,” New York Times Magazine, June 19, 2018). The strong hues and graphicness are indicative of Mesler’s additional history as a printer. Dancing liquid flies throughout To Life and intermingles with the text and leaves, creating atomized clouds of smoke. Given Mesler’s roots in Los Angeles, Ed Ruscha is an important reference, especially his Liquid Paintings of the 1960s, which present words as flowing, painterly entities. In both the Liquid Paintings and To Life, there is a pleasurable tactility that pulls the viewer into the scene, asking us to raise a glass of our own.
It follows that there is an immediacy to Mesler’s diaristic paintings. As he observes, “My art is all about essentially one day in my life” (C. Kohlberg, “Exclusive: An Interview with Artist Joel Mesler,” The Knockturnal, May 3, 2019). Given Mesler’s autobiographical impulse, To Life narrates something in the artist’s life, though we cannot know its nature, and whether it is celebratory or memorial. Death is always on the artist’s mind, often exhibiting tragi-comically under the name “The Estate of Joel Mesler”. Though we cannot know what memory prompted To Life, what is clear is that his skillful self-documentation, in the tradition of Vincent Van Gogh’s or Frida Kahlo’s tumultuous and dreamlike self-portraits, generates a connection with his audience, who comes away convinced of the power of the everyday.
After being central to the art worlds of Los Angeles and New York and—as a gallerist—helping to build the careers of numerous artists, the generosity and foresight of Mesler’s work comes as no surprise. Painting has never been a solitary process, and he reaches out in To Life. He asks us to join him and to think deeply about the ephemera of our own lives that will remain generations from now.
Unsurprisingly, Rashid Johnson has noted that Mesler’s “palette is beautiful” (B. Kachka, “How an Art Dealer Became an Up-and-Coming Painter,” New York Times Magazine, June 19, 2018). The strong hues and graphicness are indicative of Mesler’s additional history as a printer. Dancing liquid flies throughout To Life and intermingles with the text and leaves, creating atomized clouds of smoke. Given Mesler’s roots in Los Angeles, Ed Ruscha is an important reference, especially his Liquid Paintings of the 1960s, which present words as flowing, painterly entities. In both the Liquid Paintings and To Life, there is a pleasurable tactility that pulls the viewer into the scene, asking us to raise a glass of our own.
It follows that there is an immediacy to Mesler’s diaristic paintings. As he observes, “My art is all about essentially one day in my life” (C. Kohlberg, “Exclusive: An Interview with Artist Joel Mesler,” The Knockturnal, May 3, 2019). Given Mesler’s autobiographical impulse, To Life narrates something in the artist’s life, though we cannot know its nature, and whether it is celebratory or memorial. Death is always on the artist’s mind, often exhibiting tragi-comically under the name “The Estate of Joel Mesler”. Though we cannot know what memory prompted To Life, what is clear is that his skillful self-documentation, in the tradition of Vincent Van Gogh’s or Frida Kahlo’s tumultuous and dreamlike self-portraits, generates a connection with his audience, who comes away convinced of the power of the everyday.
After being central to the art worlds of Los Angeles and New York and—as a gallerist—helping to build the careers of numerous artists, the generosity and foresight of Mesler’s work comes as no surprise. Painting has never been a solitary process, and he reaches out in To Life. He asks us to join him and to think deeply about the ephemera of our own lives that will remain generations from now.