FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: ARTIST-MADE FURNITURE

Mary Heilmann, Clubchair 54, 2008. Painted wood with polypropylene webbing, 33-1/4 x 25 x 25-1/2 inches (84.455 x 63.5 x 67.31 cm). Photo by Genevieve Hanson. Image courtesy of the artist, 303 Gallery, New York, and Hauser & Wirth.

STUDENT ART FESTIVAL: RAUSCHENBERG 100

The 2025 Student Art Festival: Rauschenberg 100 honors the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth by joining an international museum initiative organized by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Guild Hall will partner 10 Public Schools and 10 East End Artists to collaboratively delve into what Rauschenberg called the “gap between art and life,” valuing chance and collaboration in a wide range of materials, subjects, styles, and creative techniques.

The Festival concludes with an exhibition of new works and creative presentations by the partnered public schools and artists, and a special presentation of Rauschenberg’s work held in Guild Hall’s permanent collection. The permanent collection exhibition will be co-curated by the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council and Museum Director & Curator of Visual Arts, Melanie Crader.

Gallery Hours:
Thurday to Sunday, 12-5 PM

Museum admission is always free.



ABOUT THE STUDENT ART FESTIVAL

The Guild Hall Student Art Festival (SAF) is a beloved tradition that encourages and celebrates the artistic achievement and imagination of students, Kindergarten to Grade 12, on the South Fork of Long Island. Through close collaboration with schoolteachers and districts, we explore an annual theme, partner each participating school with regional artists, produce an exhibition of new works, and link the tenets of creative production to civic participation.

ALMOND ZIGMUND: WADING ROOM

May 4 – July 13, 2025
Marks Family Gallery South

In conjunction with the Functional Relationships exhibition,  Almond Zigmund, artist and creator of the series Almond Artist and Writers, will lead the creation of a site-specific environment and a series of participatory public programs in the Marks Family South Gallery. The installation will include functional, artist-made furniture for public use. The space will encourage visitors to linger, lounge, and interact; creating a dynamic gathering space that engages with the idea of how art can be an essential part of community building.

This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum registrar and exhibition coordinator.


About Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture
Utilizing Donald Judd as a historical reference, this group exhibition will examine East End Artists who make functional furniture as an extension to their creative practice—as a means of problem-solving, to create an element of designed living, and to create social spaces. Artists included are John Chamberlain, Robert Wilson, Mary Heilmann, Almond Zigmund, Evan Yee, Peter Dayton, Quentin Curry, Scott Bluedorn, Yung Jake, and more.

FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: ARTIST-MADE FURNITURE

Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture: Utilizing Donald Judd as a historical reference, this group exhibition will examine East End Artists who make functional furniture as an extension to their creative practice—as a means of problem-solving, to create an element of designed living, and to create social spaces. Artists included are John Chamberlain, Mary Heilmann, Robert Wilson, Almond Zigmund, Connie Fox, Evan Yee, Kurt Gumaer, Liz Collins, Mark Wilson, Nico Yektai, Peter Dayton, Quentin Curry, Scott Bluedorn, Yung Jake, and more. 

In conjunction with the Functional Relationships exhibition,  Almond Zigmund, artist and creator of the series Almond Artist and Writers, will lead the creation of a site-specific environment and a series of participatory public programs in the Marks Family South Gallery. The installation will include functional, artist-made furniture for public use. The space will encourage visitors to linger, lounge, and interact; creating a dynamic gathering space that engages with the idea of how art can be an essential part of community building.

This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum registrar and exhibition coordinator. 

MARY HEILMANN: WATER WAY

Marks Family Gallery North and Tito Spiga Exhibition Space

Mary Heilmann: Water Way will be the artist’s first large-scale solo presentation with an institution on the East End of Long Island, where she has been an integral part of the region’s creative community for decades. From California to New York City to Bridgehampton, Heilmann has prioritized living in close proximity to water, which has had a profound influence on her life and work. Whether as a direct image or referential title, water has long been a recurring theme throughout her practice.  Guild Hall is pleased to realize an exhibition that Heilmann has had a strong desire to stage—one that brings together over 40 works of a focused area of her output. The exhibition includes works on paper, ceramics, and paintings spanning from the 1980s through the present.

This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum registrar and exhibition coordinator. 

THE RANCH PRESENTS

Please join us for the first presentation of an ongoing series “The Ranch Presents”—artist-centered panel discussions led by Max Levai, founder of The Ranch, located in Montauk, New York.

Levai, joined by art critic Barry Schwabsky, will moderate a discussion between artists Sayre Gomez and Jamian Juliano-Villani, which will focus on their respective exhibitions at The Ranch and the legacies of Jack Goldstein and Mike Kelley.  The panel discussion coincides with the completion of the publication for Jack Goldstein | Sayre Gomez, a two-person exhibition exploring the pair’s intergenerational connections.

MEMBERS-ONLY PREVIEW DAY

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16
GALLERY HOURS: 12-5 PM
RECEPTION: 3-5 PM

Members, please join us for a preview of the 85th Artist Members Exhibition, also featuring the work of 2021 Top Honors award-winner, Linda Reville Eisenberg.

Storm Ascher, an independent curator, writer, and founder of Superposition Gallery and The Hamptons Black Arts Council, has been invited to be this year’s Awards Juror.

This initiative provides an opportunity for audiences to support and celebrate the artists who live and work in our immediate region and for artists to sell their works. In turn, artists show their commitment to and support of Guild Hall. Members have early access.

Not a member? JOIN HERE

GALLERY TOUR WITH LINDA REVILLE EISENBERG

Join artist Linda Reville Eisenberg and Guild Hall’s Director of Visual Arts Melanie Crader for an artist-led gallery tour of the exhibition Linda Reville Eisenberg: STILL.

Linda Reville Eisenberg was the 2021 Top Honors winner of the 83rd Artist Members Exhibition selected by Antwaun Sargeant, Gagosian Director and Curator.

Linda uses traditional painting techniques to explore a variety of genres within the art-historical canon. For her presentation at Guild Hall, she will present two focused projects—still-life paintings of vessels and two intimate portraits.

 

GALLERY TOUR: ARTIST MEMBERS EXHIBITION HONOREES

Join Guild Hall’s Director of Visual Arts, Melanie Crader and Honorable Mention artists for an artist-led gallery tour of Guild Hall’s 85th Artist Members Exhibition.

Awards Juror Storm Ascher, founder of Superposition Gallery and The Hamptons Black Arts Council, selected Michael A. Butler of Sag Harbor as the Top Honors recipient for his work Lilies of the Field.

In addition to the Top Honors prize, Ascher awarded Honorable Mentions to Lilah Yektai, Ross Watts, Anita Giraldo, Raphael Ogoe, and Kenneth Jackson.


The Artist Members Exhibition began in 1938, and Guild Hall continues this long-standing democratic tradition by hosting the oldest non-juried museum exhibition on Long Island. This lively presentation features more than three hundred works and showcases a variety of mediums. As in the traditional salon exhibition, works by established artists are exhibited alongside those of emerging talents and first-time exhibitors, offering a sampling of artistic practices within our community. This initiative provides an opportunity for audiences to support and celebrate the artists who live and work in our immediate region and for artists to sell their works. In turn, artists show their commitment to and support of Guild Hall. Early participants included James Brooks, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Alfonso Ossorio, Charlotte Park, Jackson Pollock, and many more.

Guild Hall invites nationally and internationally recognized art professionals to select the Top Honors Award and Honorable Mentions. The recipient of the Top Honors Award is given a future solo exhibition at Guild Hall. 

AME 2024 Awards Juror: Storm Ascher
Storm Ascher is an independent curator, writer, and founder of Superposition Gallery and The Hamptons Black Arts Council.

Galleries will be open Thursday to Sunday, 12-5 PM. Museum admission is always free.

ARTIST TALK: PETER DAYTON & MELANIE CRADER

In conjunction with the installation, Peter Dayton: Dark Garden, Guild Hall exhibiting artist, Peter Dayton, will join Melanie Crader, Guild Hall’s Director of Visual Arts, for a conversation on the installation and Dayton’s wide-ranging practice – from punk rock to site-specific installations. 


Peter Dayton
Dark Garden, 2024
Ink on premium vinyl with
low-luster laminate and collage overlay

After a nearly decade-long career as a punk rock musician, Peter Dayton returned to visual art upon moving to East Hampton in the mid-1980s. Dark Garden is a site-specific installation created for Guild Hall’s stairwell leading from the lobby to the balcony of the Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater. Dayton’s exploration of flowers began when he found discarded issues of House and Garden magazine from the 1950s near his home, and his collages utilize photocopied flowers from seed catalogs, which links his practice to the work of Andy Warhol and other pop artists. He chooses visually arresting images of flowers without leaves and stems—images devoid of sentiment, emotion, or specific references—allowing the flower forms to create their own patterns.

JULIAN SCHNABEL: SELECTED WORKS FROM HOME

MARKS FAMILY GALLERY SOUTH, NORTH, AND & TITO SPIGA EXHIBITION SPACE

Julian Schnabel is a leading figure among the artists who reinvigorated the practice of painting in the late 1970s, adopting unconventional materials and ways to use them to create monumental works. He remains one of the seminal and most prolific artists of the last four decades and has been a significant figure in contemporary art discourse since his first New York solo show at Mary Boone Gallery in 1979. His experimental and often revolutionary approach extends throughout his creative work in various mediums—including painting, sculpture, architecture, and award-winning feature films. Every aspect of his life is filtered through a painter’s lens, as Schnabel lives and works in carefully considered spaces, often en plein air, surrounded by objects dating from antiquity to the present, many created by artists and artist friends, both living and dead, and by the artist himself.

Julian Schnabel: Selected Works from Home presents a selection of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures from his personal collection—the works he has chosen to keep for himself and to live among. The works on view, made over the last 45 years, include an early wax painting, Procession (for Jean Vigo) from 1979; Salinas Cruz, a painting on velvet from 1984; paintings on printed materials and tarpaulins; and multiple plate paintings, which show the different possibilities of working in this manner and with this specific material over decades. Schnabel’s art evokes a deep yet elusive connection to humanity. The installation of his large-scale works within Guild Hall’s intimate galleries offers visitors an all-encompassing, contemplative experience—a rare opportunity to lose oneself in the artworks, their history, and their transformation —and to capture a sense of time suspended.

This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, director of visual arts, in close collaboration with the artist, and Patrick Hillman, executive assistant to Julian Schnabel.


Following the success of their 2022 summer pop-up in East Hampton, TASCHEN is thrilled to return to the Hamptons, partnering with the cultural heart of the East End – Guild Hall.

Coinciding with the opening of Guild Hall’s summer exhibition Julian Schnabel: Selected Works from Home, TASCHEN will transform a section of the historic museum into a fully operational pop-up shop.

The TASCHEN pop-up will feature several Julian Schnabel x TASCHEN projects, including an exclusive collection of hand-painted skateboards by the artist, available to US collectors for the first time. The pop-up will also showcase limited edition book projects with contemporaries such as Annie Leibovitz and David Hockney, alongside a curated selection of TASCHEN’s most celebrated art books, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York. Portrait of a City, and Peter Beard.

The TASCHEN Pop-Up at Guild Hall is open to the public Thursday to Sunday, 12–5 PM and before theater programs.