Press Release

LGDR is pleased to announce Joel Mesler: Pool Party, an exhibition opening simultaneously in Palm Beach and in London that explores childhood memory and personal trauma contrasted with the joy and innocence that defined the artist’s upbringing in Los Angeles during the 1980s. Debuting at 50 Cocoanut Row in Palm Beach and at both 40 Albemarle Street and 22 Old Bond Street in London, this exhibition features new paintings and works on paper that expand on Mesler’s signature banana leaf motifs to include pool floats, beach balls, and disco lights. With this series, the artist reflects on the collective crisis and individual isolation resulting from the pandemic—evoking fire and water throughout his compositions to symbolize the calamity that has enveloped the world. Mesler combines such imagery with lyrics from the playlists of his adolescence, invoking unifying and celebratory songs such as the 1985 anthem ‘We Are the World.’ On view through March 13, 2022, Joel Mesler: Pool Party converts the artist’s private suffering into a universal language of hope and survival.

Installation Views

About the Artist

Deploying words and images, Joel Mesler draws from childhood memories and life experiences to create paintings that meld his private impressions with cultural touchstones, illuminating elements of universal human consciousness. Often evoking the artist’s youth in 1980s Los Angeles, Mesler’s signature style encompasses bold colours, stylised patterns, bright figuration, and the artist’s unique calligraphic scripts—bearing artfully rendered phrases such as YOU DESERVE GREAT THINGS, PLAY THE HITS, HOPES & DREAMS. Calling to mind diverse influences from the imagined jungles of Henri Rousseau to forms found in 20th-century decorative arts, Mesler’s canvases offer a wry, vulnerable examination of where personal and popular iconography convene.

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Also Exhibiting at Lévy Gorvy Dayan

About the Gallery

Helmed by Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, and Amalia Dayan, Lévy Gorvy Dayan collaborates with artists, estates, non-profit organizations, foundations, museums, and private collections to increase the visibility of twentieth- and twenty-first century works and artists—realizing seminal projects and furthering legacies. In forming Lévy Gorvy Dayan, the partners merge their respective specialties across twentieth- and twenty-first century art, their reputations as leaders and tastemakers, and their respective backgrounds in the primary and secondary markets. Lévy Gorvy Dayan provides opportunities for education, exposure, and access to acquiring exceptional art through its museum-quality exhibition program and thoughtful participation in international art fairs. Expanding, refining, and enhancing world-class modern and contemporary art collections, the gallery emphasizes connoisseurship and curation in its collection development, estate planning, and art appraisal services. Both international and local in practice and perspective, Lévy Gorvy Dayan has unique spaces and unmatched market knowledge in New York, London, and Hong Kong, in addition to representation in Geneva, Milan, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taiwan.

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Address
22 Old Bond Street, London and Slat House, Royal Poinciana Plaza, Palm Beach
Opening Hours
Monday – Friday
10am – 5pm
(1)
London Empress Club, 35 Dover Street
Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Empress Club, 35 Dover Street, London, United Kingdom

Opening hours
Monday – Friday
10am – 5pm
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