Joel Mesler

Although Joel Mesler’s autobiographical paintings evoke illustrations from a children’s alphabet book, his distinctive style imbues them with a dark wit that reveals pivotal moments from his life. Composed on raw linen, the quick-witted drawings and hand-rendered texts are typically deadpan in their humour, while the bold leafy pattern and graphic elements recall the vernacular of Los Angeles and Southern California design. Above all, Mesler’s paintings can be read as wry and self-deprecating commentary on Mesler’s roles as a father, artist and art dealer, with the hand of judgement pointing to geographical locations that mark significant moments in the genesis of his personal evolution.

Joel Mesler was born in Los Angeles in 1974 and lives and works in New York. He received an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1999. Since opening his first gallery, Dianne Pruess, in Los Angeles in 2000, he has worked as both a dealer and an artist. Mesler has operated several galleries over the past two decades, including Feuer/Mesler in New York; Rental in Los Angeles and New York; Untitled in New York, and Retrospective in Hudson. Recent solo exhibitions include Flag Art Foundation, New York (2023); Long Museum, Shanghai (2023); Cheim & Read, New York (2023); LGDR in Hong Kong, Palm Beach and London (2022); and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2021).