Joel Mesler: In the Beginning
Lévy Gorvy Hong Kong, 2021
In 2021, Lévy Gorvy presented Joel Mesler: In the Beginning, an exhibition of new paintings by the artist and his first solo exhibition in Asia.
Deploying both words and images, Mesler draws from childhood memories and life experiences, to make paintings that bring his private impressions into close contact with cultural touchstones and elements of universal human consciousness. The works on view in In the Beginning were composed with boldly stylized patterns that represent leaves of banana trees and other plants, along with animal forms, pools of water, and the sun. In subject and style, the tropical flora and fauna of the paintings bring to mind both the imagined jungles of Paul Gauguin and Henri Rousseau, and such iconic forms of mid-20th-century decorative arts as printed wallpaper depicting exotica. To these scenes, Mesler adds phrases rendered in script, experimenting with letter formation and its integration into his compositions.
