
Joel Mesler: Miles of Smiles is the artist’s first museum exhibition in the region of his adopted home, where he began a new life in 2017. Mesler’s practice sheds light on universal themes by filtering them through autobiography, humor, self-deprecation, and surprising compositional juxtapositions, often employing graphic patterns and motifs, elaborate typography, and personal iconography. He has explored the power of acceptance, allowing emotions—as well as the cultural forms in which they become entangled—to exist at the center of his projects.
Mesler—a former art dealer—has always been an artist as well as a collector, connoisseur, archivist, artistic collaborator, and cultural steward. Miles of Smiles pulls together all of these facets in one presentation. In his East Hampton office and studio, he lives and works among art and personal effects in a horror vacui environment, in which he has an unmediated experience with art and objects that inhabit every square inch of his space. The installation features a varied selection of the artist’s own work, as well as personal objects and works from his collection by other artists with whom he has deep personal connections, including his contemporaries Sarah Aibel, Roger Herman, Sheree Hovsepian, Rashid Johnson, Henry Taylor, and Austyn Weiner as well as artists who have influenced his practice: Francesco Clemente, Mauricio Lasansky, and Ben Shahn.
Through the installation Miles of Smiles, Mesler takes us on a journey—a glimpse into the complexity of life, the value we place on objects, and our emotional attachment to them. The space will function as a gathering and meeting place, in which the artist will also host office hours and public programs.
This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts, with Philippa Content, Museum Manager and Registrar, and Claire Hunter, Museum Coordinator and Curatorial Associate.
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Joel Mesler
Joel Mesler’s (b. 1974, Los Angeles) work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Rockefeller Center, New York (2024), Chateau La Coste, France (2024), Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York (2024), the Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai (2023); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Lévy Gorvy, Hong Kong (2021); Harper’s Books, East Hampton, New York (2020); and Simon Lee, London (2018). Mesler lives and works in East Hampton, New York.
Photo: On White Wall Studio
Sponsors
Lead Sponsor: Judelson Family Foundation, and The Tessler Family
Additional Support: Jane Wesman and Don Savelson
Media Partner: CULTURED
Visual Arts programs are supported by funding from Barbara and Richard S. Lane, Lucio and Joan Noto, The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and additional support provided by The Giuppy Nantista Fund and The Hoie Fund.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.