Joel Mesler, Untitled (Pool Party), 2025. Editions & Works on Paper New York.
Joel Mesler
For all his time spent in New York, Joel Mesler reminds us that he is, in fact, a son of Los Angeles, and nothing beats the heat like a dive into Untitled (Pool Party). It’s Mesler at his most characteristic: the scene’s decorative flourish is balanced by the artist’s self-deprecating sensibility, making it as inviting as it is comedic. The monumental screenprint reminds us that the party doesn’t start until someone yells “Cannonball!” and everyone follows, or rather, why it happens in the movies, because in real life, the floaties and noodles tend to be the mise-en-scène for the partygoers standing around the pool. But don’t mind us, we brought a bathing suit, and we have dibs on the sprinkle donut.
Etel Adnan
Left: Etel Adnan, To the Ocean, 2017. Right: Etel Adnan, Paysage de Feu (Landscape of Fire), 2017. Editions & Works on Paper New York.
We have the gift of sensational afternoon light, with a flat shimmer of blue pool water and the hard blaze of the sun at its peak, which makes the perfect setting to enjoy two works by Etel Adnan. The pair of 2017 aquatints, To the Ocean and Paysage de Feu (Landscape of Fire), sit at opposite ends of her palette: water and fire, cool immersion and dry earth, each capturing the essential elements of an outdoor scene and distilling its enormity through simple, geometric planes. Adnan described her work as “a reflection of my immense love for the world, the happiness just to be, for nature, and the forces that shape a landscape,” and that joy is infectious as we drift into the golden hour sun.
Mel Bochner
Mel Bochner, Blah, Blah, Blah, 2019. Editions & Works on Paper New York.
Every pool party reaches a point, usually when the drinks run low and the conversation runs long, when language itself quietly falls apart. It’s 95 degrees, and yet we’re shivering in search of a towel while a stranger launches into networking mode. Fear not, Mel Bochner has us perfectly prepared for this moment. As Bochner explains, “Blah blah blah is a way of shorthanding a conversation […] what you are hearing or saying is in fact meaningless. It’s about the emptiness, the endlessness, and the darkness of the discourse.” The present monoprint from 2019 has a particular tactility and resonance with its layered engraving, embossing, and oil paint, creating a disappearing effect, and there’s nothing we’d love more than to Homer Simpson our way into the hedges before our interlocutor asks for our LinkedIn.
Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst, The Souls of Jacob’s Ladder Take Their Flight, 2007. Editions & Works on Paper New York.
An entomologist studies bugs; a lepidopterist studies butterflies in particular. The philosophical study of biblical text is called hermeneutics, and the guy who combines all of the above is called Damien Hirst. His 2007 series, The Souls of Jacob’s Ladder Take Their Flight, leans into his longstanding interest in religious themes and still departs from his usual arrangement of wings in mosaic patterns. Instead, each butterfly is complete and presented against a stark background, as though ready to ascend. Bringing together themes of morality, life, love, and faith, each siloed butterfly is beautifully rendered in vivid color and brightens the fading light behind us. This is the sort of contemplative end befitting a long day in the sun and the lingering scent of chlorine. Ooh, heaven is a place on earth.