The Estate of Joel Mesler
THERAPY + THERAPISTS + SUITE AT THE DEAUVILLE
December 1–5, 2016
Presented by CAPITAL, San Francisco
and Cultural Counsel, New York
Deauville Beach Resort
6701 Collins Ave, Miami, FL 33141
CAPITAL and Cultural Counsel are pleased to present, THERAPY + THERAPISTS + SUITE AT THE DEAUVILLE, an exhibition of 8 new paintings from the Estate of Joel Mesler taking place in the Deauville Beach Resort during NADA Miami Beach, 2016. These pigmented works on linen find the artist in a state of repose, engaging tropes of leisure and therapy to present Miami as a site of panic and hope. Displaying references from antiquity, psychoanalysis, and contemporary crises such as the Zika epidemic in a private hotel suite floors above the anxieties of the art fair, as well as the gentle waves of the Atlantic, Mesler uses unexpected aplomb to survey the surface and depth of wellness and despair.
Until this spring, Joel Mesler was foremost known as an art dealer, captaining contemporary art spaces in both Los Angeles and New York. However, he was trained as an artist and has created work throughout his career, often at home after his children go to bed. These periods of productivity are marked by fervent output, and followed by lulls of creative dormancy during which he attends to the needs of the gallery, as well as those of his family. Tracing the contours of his career, one can identify several pronounced periods of artmaking, each with a clear end and beginning. Each work can potentially be his last, and as such, the practice is best considered in a semi-final condition. It is an estate—a term normally reserved for the work of a deceased artist.
These new paintings expand upon the wry dissidence of his earlier works. They retreat against the constraints of the art world: the pressures to make work, or to sell work, to define oneself, and, more than anything else, to succeed. They step back, allowing Mesler’s self-doubt to propel their historical references and formal qualities. Working with the traditional materials of pigment and linen, Mesler references Freud and Jung as arbiters of the unhappy mind, the sea as a site of rejuvenation, and painting itself, which can be both therapy and therapist.
CAPITAL is a contemporary art gallery located in San Francisco’s Mission District,
Established in 2015, CAPITAL is owned and operated by Bob Linder and Jonathan Runcio.
NADA Miami Beach, booth #2.03