Mesmory at Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles
Mesmory
Memories, flashes of thought, inspirations…
Erratic, fascinating, unique, hypnotic, simultaneous, overwhelming, indescribable, therapeutic, fleeting, profound, associative, unforgettable, true, fantastic, abstract, dreamlike, cloned, parallel, nostalgic, trance-like, effortless, crazy, forgetful, abyssal.
Remembering something is a purely personal experience. Are our thoughts today influenced even more than expected by the digital world? Was there more deep diving and intense exchange of ideas in the past? Writing analog letters on paper, playing physical games. Messages, ideas, and thoughts seem to have become more fleeting and fade away into the void.
Fortunately, there are 40 artists here who, with 80 little surprises, invite you to join them on a meta journey of the mind.
For the exhibition Mesmory, the invited artists each contributed two works on paper—either newly created or selected from their existing bodies of work—inspired by the thematic background of the exhibition title’s portmanteau:
Memory + Mesmerizing = Mesmory
The exhibition brings together drawings, photographs, collages, watercolors, and paper objects—light enough to be carried from Berlin to the other side of the world.
Just like in a game of Memory, viewers are invited to find matches. The conditions are a bit more challenging, as the two works by each artist are not identical—they may be similar, or entirely different.
Game on!
Participating artists
Alexis Knowlton
Alisa Margolis
Anne Hölck
Anke Völk
Annette Sonnewend
Bettina Weiß
Caro Mantke
Carl Baratta
Charlotte Bastian
Chinatsu Ikeda
Clemens Wilhelm
Christine Atkinson
Daniel Wiesenfeld
Gabriele Regiert
Jasmine Justice
Jeremiah Day
Jesse Farber
Julia Krewani
Juliane Zelwies
Jutta Eberhard
Karen Linnenkohl
Katie Vida
Kerstin Serz
Kiki Gebauer
Lisa Junghanß
Lucille Mona Ling
Matthias Reinmuth
Mira O’Brien
Niina Lehtonen Braun
Niklas Goldbach
Nikola Irmer
Peter Scior
Raaf van der Sman
Ruth Wiesenfeld
Simone Häckel
Tilman Wendland
Tine Furler
Tobias Yves Zintel
Ulu Braun
Zuzanna Skiba
Mesmory is a curatorial project by Bettina Weiß.
Mesmory Volume 1 will be presented by Artist-Run Space SCOTTY (Berlin, Germany) during the Artist-Run Fair TRYST, August 7–9, 2026, at Del Amo Crossing, Torrance, Los Angeles.
