Art Exhibition - Alexander Meller: Surrealism Lost and Found

Dec 17, 2023

After decades of negligent storage in a desert-area garage, from exhibiting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Felix Landau Gallery in Los Angeles in the 1950s to later obscurity, this exhibition featuring the works of Alexander Meller (1920–2002), is a must-see.

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. & PALM SPRINGS, Calif. & LOS ANGELES - Dec. 16, 2023 - PRLog -- We are delighted to present this exciting exhibition featuring California artist Alexander Meller, featuring 8 recently restored oil paintings in addition to several others from our collection.

The exhibition premieres on December 22, 2023, with an opening reception from 4-7pm, and ongoing through January 21, 2023 and beyond, as inventory remains.

About Alexander Meller

Alexander Meller was a Surrealist painter, most often compared to Roberto Matta, but similarities to Wilfredo Lam can be seen in his work as well. His unusual futuristic style with elements of Cubism, combine to create a World that is at times wondrous and disconcerting. Meller, born Hanany Srule Chaimov Hanek Meller on January 6, 1920 in Harbin, Manchuria, emigrated to the United States in 1937.

Meller was one of 101 artists selected for the American Sculpture 1951 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which ran from December 1951 through February 1952. The following month, Meller had a welded metal sculpture "Tomcat" selected for the 1952 Annual Exhibition, Artists of Los Angeles and Vicinity at the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA). While the LACMA exhibition was going on and just a few months after the exhibition at The Met ended, came a one-man show at the very influential Felix Landau Gallery, in what would become an emerging art scene known as "gallery row", located on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. Meller's work included wood and metal sculpture, as well as his oil paintings.

Art critic Jules Langsner announced the upcoming show in Art News (now ArtNews) proclaiming Meller's "immense vitality" and certain pieces "virile, ingenuously clever", "luminously transparent forms and activated deep space, close to Matta in spirit, fluid color and malleable shapes, that are effective if disquietingly so."

Art critic Barbara Barstow Cobb reviewed the opening and commented that "Mr. Meller's prolific oils, which show the neat precision of industrial designing and architectural draughting, predominant. He has marvelous facility with prismatic effects and a distinctly different approach to cubism." She writes, "Meller's sense of humor is at all time apparent, with his slyly hidden nudes, his gyrating figures, his through the looking glass 'out of this world' canvases." She finishes, marveling at his written signature as "a delight to these tired and myopic eyes. It is large, proud, and entirely distinguishable. Would that other artists would write likewise."

A more complete biography can be found at the following link. A full listing of works will be available prior to the opening.
https://www.objectculture.com/artists/alexander-meller

About Object Culture

Barry Bryant and Johnny McLendon are owners of this unique 3000 sq. ft. gallery located in the Perez Art & Design Center in Cathedral City, California. High ceilings and dramatic spaces dominate this former industrial building, and present a welcoming, casual environment. The gallery features a unique and eclectic mix of vintage and contemporary modern art and design.

Visit http://www.objectculture.com for details