Art is total play. – Jonathan Meese
German artist Jonathan Meese makes exuberant, uninhibited work that is characterized as much by the artist’s humorously grotesque (or grotesquely humorous?) approach as it is by the actual subject matter. As an artistic process, Meese disintegrates, tangles up, and caricatures symbols, past art forms, and popular cultures. The expressively painted head in Dear Jessie De Joesey (L.O.V.E.) is goofily labeled “ME” and stares out at the viewer with its mouth gagged (or pried open?). True to form, the work’s sheer brashness is as much a portrait as the figure depicted on the canvas. Meese has exhibited globally in museums and galleries, including solo shows at CAC Málaga; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; and De Appel Center for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam.