Joel Mesler

LGDR is pleased to present 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. 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.” Joel Mesler: Pool Party converts the artist’s private suffering into a universal language of hope and survival.