Jonathan Meese

German artist Jonathan Meese returns to David Nolan Gallery in an exhibition showcasing paintings, sculptures, and works on paper all made during quarantine, illustrating his development of a fantastical visual language, replete with cultural references both to the real and the imaginary.

Influenced by methods of participatory art, including improvisational installations activated by the imagination of the viewer, Meese’s own practice responds to the idea of total art in which all elements of the work relate to each other in order to create a multifaceted whole. To this end, his work employs a variety of subjects, expressing the possibilities of alternate worlds. Featuring a wide cast of characters—chimeric animals, dragons, devils, ghosts, and other mythical creatures—the subjects of Meese’s textured acrylic paintings and sculptures inhabit equally imaginative worlds. Denizens of a utopian primordial realm far from the dysfunction of modern life, Meese’s characters reaffirm the potential of creative expression.