JOEL MESLER: KITCHENS ARE GOOD ROOMS TO CRY IN
Lévy Gorvy Dayan announces Kitchens are good rooms to cry in, by the artist Joel Mesler. e. Through a dazzling display of work across media, Mesler expounds on the insights of his earned experience, as well as the questions yet to be answered, in a presentation that is at once intimate and exuberant, reflective and bold.
June 6 - July 28, 2024
The exhibition begins with a powerful symbol from Mesler’s boyhood—that of the swimming pool— the setting of innocent play and parties as well as the early witness of parental affairs and concerns. An immersive and transporting room-size installation of Mesler’s aqueous pool design will create the sensation of being underwater and will surround three floating trompe l’oeil beach balls, cast in bronze and hand painted.
Spinning through time, adolescence and adulthood are conjured in a second installation. Here, Martinique, banana leaf wallpaper evokes the Beverly Hills Hotel, a site intertwined with Mesler’s upbringing and the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. A chromatically painted disco-ball sculpture will hang in the center of the gallery that will also feature his vibrant text and image paintings—alluding to the excitement and intrigues of nightlife.
The second floor will feature large-scale canvases that reflect Mesler today. The works are distinguished by an atmospheric and auratic quality, imparted by his deft hand-dyed patterns on linen. By laying bare his technique, Mesler reveals his background as a printmaker—his knowledge of color gradations and saturation enabling the vivid all-over paintings for which he is most known.
In the new paintings, Mesler leaves the traces of the dye stains and the support exposed, echoing his own vulnerability. His words, which take the form of gold metallic balloons, express concepts meaningful to his maturation such as “Courage,” “Vessel,” “Feelings,” and “Prayer.”
However, unlike the taut Mylar Mesler depicts elsewhere, these balloons are slack—it is uncertain whether they are in the midst of inflating or deflating. Mesler’s partially collapsed balloons represent a point of transition between rising and falling. Their mystery composes a poignant image and message—to find solace in the making and presence in the moment.
On July 2, 2024, Mesler’s solo exhibition at the gallery will be joined by his public installation, Pool Party, at the Rink at Rockefeller Center, presented by Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund. Pool Party will activate multiple locations throughout Rockefeller Center, centering at the Rink with the creation of a patterned pool as well as the artist’s sculptural floats, inflatables, and beach balls.