Arnold Mesches: Paint

The first room is laden with miniature and full-scale paintings in Paint from 87-year-old Arnold Mesches, who will be showing work at the Frost Museum throughout Art Basel Miami Beach. With lush, controlled strokes, Mesches illuminates the painter’s studio using works from Rembrandt, Goya, and El Greco as larger-than-life backdrops. The mahogany-tinged backgrounds add a sense of reverence and wisdom to the historic works, essentially reduced to postcards on a table with the artists’ brushes, paint cans and other tools. The second room displays Weather Patterns, a series of large-scale works, which pit miniscule circus performers, a chariot driver, and a waiter
(amongst others) against the sublime, menacing conditions of thunderstorms, tornadoes and volcanoes. Nature’s fury somehow gently compliments the little figures, as they continue their activity unaware of the impending danger of their surroundings. – Shana Mason (Miami New Times)