Anthony Meier is pleased to present Bay Area music village, a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Dave Muller, on view from November 7, 2024 to February 14, 2025, opening reception Saturday 16 November from 2 - 4 pm. Renowned for an oeuvre informed by a lifelong fascination with music and its power to shape identity and cultural dialogue, this exhibition represents a homecoming for the artist as it explores the vibrant cultural landscape of his roots in the Bay Area. Featuring new paintings set against a site-specific wall mural along with a reimagining of the artist’s record store installation, titled Record pavilion 2.0—which will function as a fully operational record store throughout the duration of the show—Bay Area music village marks Muller’s fourth exhibition with the gallery, and his first solo presentation in Mill Valley.

Often integrating his paintings into immersive multimedia environments, Muller anchors the exhibition with a large hand-painted wall mural that offers a personal and idiosyncratic account of the Bay Area’s musical history, intertwined with the artist’s own upbringing in the region from the 1960’s through the ’80’s. Spanning the gallery walls, this intuitively crafted work blends Muller’s experiences as a DJ and musician with scenic references from the decades he lived in the area and his extensive, near-encyclopedic knowledge of music history. Simultaneously referencing multiple eras, cultures and vistas, the mural connects the past, present, and future to depict a convergence of venues, gathering spaces, and experiences that serves as both a historical record and a psychological panorama of the Bay Area’s cultural landscape.

Hung directly on the mural are new paintings from Muller’s Top ten series, which through the portrayal of the album spines of ten records serve as veritable portraits of the individuals who chose them. As Muller draws upon his own extensive record collection for the Top tens on view, these new works function as self-portraits that reflect on his personal relationship with music over the years, from his first concert to pivotal live performances, and the albums he played as a college radio DJ. In each painting Muller renders record spines as tall as the chooser, encapsulating a personal journey while also highlighting the shared experience and collective influence of the musical histories it represents. The exhibition additionally features a new selection of Muller’s Disco Ball paintings, which reflect and refract various musical environments. Muller photographs an 8” disco ball in these spaces, then enlarges the image in paint so that viewers can see the reflections in each square of the ball’s painted surface. Depicting shifting permutations of light, angle, and context, these works capture the colors, angles, and spirit of their site as subject—expanding the exhibition’s exploration of the cultural and spatial dimensions of music.

Situated next door is Record pavilion 2.0, installed in the gallery’s front window vitrine. First showcased in Los Angeles in 2022, this stage-set/record-store/sculpture is stocked with records from Muller’s vast personal collection. A sound system, checkout desk, and paintings of various ephemera—posters, promo materials, zines—complete the record store vibe. Reflecting Muller’s interest in the boundaries between performance, exhibition and life, the structure’s open design—which transports the collective energy of the many record stores and music spaces where the artist has spent countless hours—is fully functional. The records are for sale through the run of the exhibition. Inviting interaction throughout the duration of the exhibition, Record Pavilion 2.0 fosters discovery, collective memory, and the exchange that’s emblematic of music itself.

Dave Muller (b. 1964, San Francisco, CA) lives and works in Pasadena, CA and West Glover, VT. Muller received a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in 1989 from University of California Davis, Davis, CA, and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1993 from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.

Muller has had domestic and international exhibitions at The Approach, London, UK; Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL; Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY and Tokyo, Japan; Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Ft. Myers, FL; Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Christian Stein, Milan, Italy; Curt Marcus Gallery, New York, NY; Elk Camp, Snowmass, Aspen, CO; Engholm Engelhorn Galerie, Vienna, Austria; Four Walls, San Francisco, CA; Galleria Allesandra Bonomo, Rome, Italy; Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY and Brussels, Belgium; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Murray Guy, New York, NY; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain; Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MI; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Spanish Box, Santa Barbara, CA; Studio 246, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; and The Wrong Gallery, New York, NY.

Selected public collections include Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; New School University, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO; Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.