Purple

2022-07-29

On view now at The Ranch in Montauk, NY, a solo exhibition of nine paintings by the American artist Jo Messer. In her most recent series, women occupy insular worlds outfitted with tiled walls and seafood platters. Escaping representational accuracy, Messer’s figures bend as if flesh unburdened by bone, scrunched against the confines of the painting’s edge or slumped on top of their companions.

Brooklyn Rail

2021-05-09

Jo Messer’s solo debut at 56 Henry is focused on two large oil paintings that confront one another in the gallery’s narrow space. These two works entrap the viewer in something like a game of “I Spy.” Never static, they stimulate a strong sense of play: as soon as the eye latches onto an object or figure, it is thrust elsewhere in Messer’s restless network of potent but suggestive imagery and erotic themes.