Mesler to put people in the picture
The dealer Joel Mesler is known in New York for discovering new artists, but then losing them to bigger galleries when
they become successful. Fortunately, he also makes a living as an artist in his own right, and this week has his debut exhibition in London at the Simon Lee Gallery, in Mayfair, where he will show autobiographical works based on the letters of the alphabet.
Suggestive of the snake, Kaa, in Walt Disney’s 1968 film The Jungle Book, the paintings contain a serpent among the greenery and are priced at £8,430 each. On Friday and Saturday, Mesler will also be in the gallery painting anyone who wants to sit for him, for just £200 per portrait. They are cheaper, he says, because they don’t take so long. Expect queues down Berkeley Street.