The Project

Timed with his newly opened exhibition at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Joel Mesler: Kitchens are good rooms to cry in, Mesler invites passersby to experience Pool Party, his upcoming public installation at Rockefeller Center, where they can engage with his balloon flags, adding a sense of positivity to their day.

By transforming these floating words into print editions in his signature taut Mylar style for Dropshop, Mesler offers collectors a chance to bring these joyful sentiments into their home.

Always open to interpretation, Mesler's work encourages viewers to delve into their emotions and share stories with others, engaging with his art at a level that resonates with them.

Printed by Brand X Editions, Pool Party drops on Tuesday, 25 June at 10am ET as individual prints or a portfolio of 6 prints with a specially designed folio and colophon sheet with custom rope closure.

Individually: $3,500
Portfolio: $14,000

Editions of 45
Image & Sheet Size:
20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm)

© Joel Mesler

The Artist

Joel Mesler (b. 1974, Los Angeles) graduated from Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, and received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999. Subsequently, he worked as an artist and art dealer in Los Angeles and New York for two decades – opening his first gallery in Los Angeles's Chinatown – and became an early supporter of renowned artists including Henry Taylor and Rashid Johnson. While Mesler began painting in the early 2000s and continued throughout the decade, it was not until the mid-2010s that he committed to his practice. In 2014, the artist returned to drawing and painting – the practice representing a form of therapy. From this point, Mesler focused on honing his singular artistic voice, palette, and style.

Deploying words and images, Joel Mesler draws from childhood memories and life experiences to create works that meld his private impressions with cultural touchstones. Often evoking his youth in 1980s Los Angeles, his signature artistic style is characterized by bold colors, stylized patterns, bright figuration, and unique calligraphic scripts. Calling to mind diverse influences – from the imagined jungles of Henri Rousseau to forms found in 20th-century decorative arts – Mesler's works offer a wry, vulnerable examination of the place where personal and popular iconography convene. His visually polished works undergird his connection to the legacy of Pop art, while his use of text places him in a lineage of artists including Ed Ruscha and Christopher Wool.  

His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Château La Coste, Aix-en Provence (2024, forthcoming); Rockefeller Center (2024, forthcoming); Long Museum, Shanghai (2023); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2023, 2021); Cheim & Read, New York (2023); LGDR, Palm Beach and London (2022); Levy Gorvy, Hong Kong (2021); Harper's Books, New York (2020); and Simon Lee, London (2018). Mesler lives and works in East Hampton, New York.

©Joel Mesler

Brand X Editions

Master printer Robert Blanton grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and studied painting and printmaking at Western Kentucky University before moving to New York in the early 1970's to obtain his MFA at Pratt University. There he began his career as a printmaker, collaborating on projects with Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella and other artists. In 1979 Blanton founded Brand X Editions.

Brand X Editions prints and publishes editions with its artist and gallery partners, practicing the craft of silkscreen based printmaking while expanding the medium's vocabulary through its inventive experimentation.

Guided by its intensely collaborative approach, Brand X seeks to resolve the creative tensions presented by each new project and realize the artist’s ultimate vision.

In early 2024, the Brand X Archive was established at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the Fall of 2025, the PMA will mount a large scale retrospective documenting nearly 50 years of printmaking at Brand X Editions including works by Rashid Johnson, Mickalene Thomas, Joel Mesler, Emily Mae Smith, Alex Katz, Vija Celmins, Jenny Holzer, Chuck Close and many others.

Editions and multiples produced and published by Brand X Editions over the past five decades are held in private collections and museums throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Walker Art Center, MN and the Tate Gallery, London.

Photo Credit: Luca Pearl Khosrova

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