JOE CHESLA

Weighted

Opening Reception: September 13, 2025

Bruno David presents Weighted, an exhibition of new works by Joe Chesla. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery will publish a catalogue of the artist’s work with an in-depth exhibition history, bibliography, with an essay by Bradley Fratello.

In Weighted, Chesla investigates the fragile interplay between presence and loss. Combining the concepts of translucence and balance with materials such as glass, porcelain, and monofilament, he presents us with the tools to examine the internal forces that drive his compositions. These works ground the viewer while drawing them into conceptual spaces that tug at the senses and leave them searching for a place to land. Existing in a state between vulnerability and stability, these works speak of quiet beauty alongside dynamic catastrophe, glacial speed, and vast stillness.

The outside world is left at the door when Chesla enters the studio. Only the essence of the day accompanies him into the material process, where environmental influences and intuition drive the choreography of objects into being. In this exhibition, each self-contained work displays the essence of those environmental forces, with all works coming together to create a shared visual language. Together, they maintain a cohesive and exploratory whole.

His work has been exhibited internationally in Poland, France, Japan, India, China, and Taiwan, and across the United States. He has received numerous awards and grants including the Utah State Arts Grant, Utah Art Council Arts Grant, Jon Morgan Fellowship, George B and Marie Eccles Caine Fellowship, and the Regional Arts Commission Grant. He has been artists in residence at Cowhouse Studios Ireland, the Academy of Fine Art in Katowice Poland, Chorzow Culture Center Poland, Pays’Art at Marnay Sur Seine Botanical Garden, France.

Joe Chesla received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from Utah State University and his BS from University of Wisconsin Stout. He has studied at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, University of Minnesota College of Fine Art, and the Kansas City Art Institute, and exhibited and lectured at numerous institutions nationally and internationally. He worked as a preparator at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and as Head Preparator at the Kemper Museum of Art in Kansas City and as a ceramic artist in Shigaraki, Japan. He currently holds the position of Professor of Fine Art, coordinating the Sculpture Department at St Louis Community College at Meramec in St Louis Missouri.