MILL VALLEY, CA.- Anthony Meier announced the representation of San Francisco-based artist Jesse Schlesinger (b. 1979, Kentucky), who works across sculpture, installation, drawing, and photography to investigate notions of place and the ways in which both natural and architectural environments engender experience and understanding.
“We are honored to have Jesse join our stellar group of artists,” comments Anthony Meier. “He is an incredible artist and craftsperson who is deeply in tune with his materials as well as the environments in which they are sourced and exhibited. We are excited to present Jesse’s work at Frieze Los Angeles in 2024, and here in Mill Valley for our community in San Francisco, and beyond.”
Trained in a wide array of traditional crafts and material processes including woodworking, bronze casting, glassblowing, ceramics, and stone carving, Schlesinger’s work evidences an appreciation for the intricacies of craftsmanship. This is reflective of his upbringing as the son of a carpenter and his respect for his skilled fabricators and studio assistant, Robbie Gould.
Schlesinger has spent a great deal of time in Japan—including as a two-time recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—working with a wide range of different craftspeople in his travels across the country. His interest in and adoption of such practices was inspired by his work with Paul Discoe, who is often credited with bringing traditional Japanese timber-framing to California, and from whom Schlesinger learned this technique. Akin to Discoe’s practice, and that of other local influences such as JB Blunk, Schlesinger’s philosophy, and his site-specific projects in particular, foreground a deep reverence for materials, which are often sourced locally from the region or area in which his work is sited. This will be true of two large-scale permanent public art commissions that Schlesinger is currently working towards in San Francisco.
Bookending the city, one commission will be located on Judah Street near Ocean Beach while the other will unfold along Natoma Street as part of the Natoma Art Corridor that leads pedestrians from the Transbay Transit Center to SFMOMA. The latter, commissioned by the Department of Public Works in conversation with SFMOMA, will respond to its setting within the heart of the city by featuring a mixture of cast bronze, sheet form stainless steel, cast glass elements, and notes of sky blue, which take shape on an architectural scale with integrated seating. Thinking deeply about site means that Schlesinger considers how his permanent outdoor projects will fare over time. While the Natoma project is largely protected from harsh weather and can thus incorporate painted materials, his installation near Ocean Beach, commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission, will be composed entirely of carved stone and cast bronze on concrete pedestals so that when they are subjected to the ocean breeze, salt, and sand, they will weather and patina beautifully over time. Located on the last commercial stretch of Judah Street, these sculptures will create a visual transition between the built environment and the natural world.
Schlesinger’s relationship with Anthony Meier began when he was commissioned to create custom furniture—a reception desk and two library tables—for the gallery’s new Mill Valley flagship. Using locally sourced wood and featuring the international orange of the Golden Gate Bridge, the resulting works reflect the visual iconography of the region and a deep connection to place and ecology that is threaded throughout his practice.
“I’m really excited to be working with Tony and the team at the gallery,” Schlesinger comments. “I respect the artists they represent, the caliber of work they do, and I’m honored to be able to exhibit with them in the Bay Area.”
Jesse Schlesinger (b. 1979, Kentucky) has exhibited widely in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Japan, including Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; Museum of Craft & Design, San Francisco; California; Curator’s Cube, Tokyo, Japan; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California; Kadist, San Francisco, California; amongst many others. He has completed multiple public and commercial commissions at sites including Menlo Park Public Shore, General Store, and Tartine Bakery, San Francisco, California. In 2012 he was shortlisted for SFMOMA’s SECA award, and he is a 2018 and 2020 recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Fellowship through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for artistic endeavors in Japan. Schlesinger is also a founding artist of Minnesota Street Project Artist Studio in San Francisco.
