zrikha sheqi’att hashemesh (Sunrise Sunset)

Mesler has become known in recent years for paintings that bring together autobiographical reflection, self-effacing humor, an open-hearted sense of precision and design, and a sly conceptualism with roots in a heterogenous group of modernist and postmodernist approaches to artmaking. zrikha sheqi’att hashemesh (Sunrise Sunset) found him expanding his work in each of these categories and revealing the deeper strains of cultural awareness and collective purpose that have motivated him since the beginning of his multifaceted career.

The composition and installation of zrikha sheqi’att hashemesh (Sunrise Sunset) is imbued with meaning that goes beyond aesthetic concerns. The nine rabbis on view are one fewer than would be necessary to form a complete minyan or Jewish prayer group, for which ten congregants (traditionally only men) must be present before public worship can begin. If the exhibition contains a tenth member, it is the one symbolized by the thirteen text paintings, whose number evokes the thirteen years of age at which observant Jews become adults through the ritual of bar or bat mitzvah.