JOEL MESLER: MILES OF SMILES

Installation view of Joel Mesler: Miles of Smiles, Guild Hall, East Hampton, August 3 – October 26, 2025. Photo: Francine Fleischer. Image Courtesy of Guild Hall.

Tag: Visual Arts

IN CONVERSATION: LISA PERRY & ALMOND ZIGMUND

Join designer and collector Lisa Perry and visual artist Almond Zigmund for an engaging discussion moderated by Melanie Crader, Guild Hall Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts. The conversation will highlight Perry’s vision for Onna House, a creative hub dedicated to championing and amplifying the voices of women artists, alongside Zigmund’s Guild Hall exhibition, Wading Room, an immersive installation that redefines spatial perception through bold geometric interventions.

Both Perry and Zigmund share a deep interest in abstraction and spatial storytelling, using design and structure to transform environments. They will explore how their work intersects, the role of women in contemporary art and design, and the power of thoughtfully curated spaces—whether a home, a gallery, or an installation—to shape perception and inspire dialogue.

STUDENT ART FESTIVAL: RAUSCHENBERG100

The 2026 Student Art Festival: Rauschenberg100 celebrates the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth as part of an international initiative organized by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. A collaboration between eight East End public schools and ten regional artists, the exhibition explores what Rauschenberg described as the “gap between art and life,” embracing experimentation and chance through a wide range of materials and creative approaches.

Participating Schools: Amagansett School; Bridgehampton School; East Hampton High School; East Hampton Middle School; John Marshall Elementary School; Shelter Island School; Springs School; Pierson Middle-High School

Participating Guest Artists: Linda K Alpern; Scott Bluedorn; Peter Dayton; Eva Faye; Margaret Garrett; Candace Hill–Montgomery; Laurie Lambrecht; Bastienne Schmidt; Kevin Teare; Evan Yee

Organized by Anthony Madonna, Theater Director & Curator of Performing Arts, Kayla Matters, Programs Manager, Learning + New Works, and Claire Hunter, Museum Coordinator & Curatorial Associate.

Curated by the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council with Melanie Crader, Museum Director & Curator of Performing Arts.

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

Almond Zigmund makes large-scale site-responsive installations, discrete sculptures, works on paper, and paintings that explore the interplay between space, perception, and the built environment. Her work is characterized by crisp geometry, vivid colors, and intricate patterns that often suggest walls, barricades, and enclosures. Zigmund is also the creator of Almond Artist & Writers, family-style dinners at the restaurant Almond in Bridgehampton where people come together to share and celebrate the artistic process; she has organized more than sixty-five gatherings to date. It is in this spirit of supporting the power of community engagement that Zigmund was invited to create a site-specific environment in conjunction with the exhibition Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture.

Wading Room houses selections from Guild Hall’s permanent collection; functional, artist-made furniture for public use, including chairs designed by Almond Zigmund in collaboration with Justin Allen (Shepard Co Design); and other artist-made objects: lighting, chairs, rugs, stools, vessels, and sculpture. The artists Sabra Moon Elliot, Kurt Gumaer, Saskia Friedrich, Karen Simon, and Nico Yektai have also contributed to the space. A series of participatory public programs and collaborative projects will take place throughout the run of the exhibition.

We encourage visitors to linger, lounge, and interact in an artist-designed environment and to visit often to explore its potential.

This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.

Enjoy These Related Programs:

Zigmund’s Hook Up 
Saturday, May 10, 12-2 PM 
FREE 

Zigmund’s Show & Tell Session  
Saturday, May 24, 12-2 PM  
FREE  

In Conversation: Lisa Perry & Almond Zigmund  
Sunday, June 1, 2 PM  
$25 ($22.50 for Members)  
 
Zigmund’s Wrap Session  
Saturday, June 21, 12-2 PM  
$15 ($13.50 for Members) 

Zigmund’s Chair Pose – BYOC  
Saturday, June 28, 12-2 PM  
$15 ($13.50 for Members)  

Zigmund’s – The Final Hookup   
Saturday, July 12, 12-2 PM  
FREE   

 

 

Get Your Limited Edition Almond Zigmund + Guild Hall Sweatshirt

Designed by artist Almond Zigmund for her 2025 Guild Hall exhibition, Almond Zigmund: Wading Room, our newest Artist + Guild Hall collab is available now in a very limited-edition run of 50 sweatshirts.  This thick, olive green, ultra-soft hoodie is sure to be your new favorite. 

Support Guild Hall while showing off your Wading Room style. Get yours now, as once these sell out, they won’t be repeated!

80% Cotton, 20% Recycled Polyester.  One size, Unisex L.

Click HERE to order your hoodie today!

Guild Hall members receive 10% off with code MEMBER10. Not a member? Click HERE for more information and to join today.

FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: ARTIST-MADE FURNITURE

“I started making couches about 1969 or 1970. I needed some place to sit down, which is the best reason for making them, I suppose.”  —John Chamberlain.

Artists often come to be associated with specific mediums or bodies of work when in fact their practices are much more expansive. Visual artists are frequently also musicians, designers, performers, filmmakers, writers, furniture makers, and so on. An encounter with one of the couches made by John Chamberlain, an artist best known for his metal sculptures, can be surprising, but the reality is that artists integrate their studio practices into all their life activities.

This presentation focuses on East End artists who have produced functional furniture as an extension of their creative practices—as a means of problem-solving, as an element of designed living, and as a way to foster social spaces. Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture presents work by Scott Bluedorn, John Chamberlain, Liz Collins, Quentin Curry, Peter Dayton, Connie Fox, Kurt Gumaer, Mary Heilmann, Yung Jake, Donald Judd, Julian Schnabel, Karen Simon, Strong-Cuevas, Mark Wilson, Robert Wilson, Evan Yee, Nico Yektai, and Almond Zigmund.

In conjunction with Functional Relationships, Guild Hall commissioned two projects as further explorations of this common practice: Lindsay Morris’s photographs of interior spaces show how artists utilize furniture and shape their domestic environments, while Almond Zigmund’s installation Wading Room in the Marks Family South Gallery provides an artist-designed environment for activation through public use and a series of participatory programs.

This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.

MARY HEILMANN: WATER WAY

Mary Heilmann: Water Way is the artist’s first large-scale solo presentation at an institution on the East End of Long Island, where she has been an integral part of the region’s creative community for decades. Heilmann grew up along the California coast, in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles. She became a competitive diver as a young teenager, frequently engaged in body surfing, and later became involved in the beatnik and surfing cultures, all of which have had a strong influence on her work. Heilmann moved to New York City in 1968, where she still resides, and has a home and studio Bridgehampton.

Throughout her life, Heilmann has consistently chosen and prioritized living close to water, which has had a profound impact on her artistic practice. She remembers making a watercolor of the ocean when she was about sixteen years old. This proximity to the ocean has influenced the way she considers light when she is conceiving a painting. For example, at sunset and moonrise she looks at the sand, the sky, and the sea for inspiration for her bold color palette. She characterizes her work as autobiographical, as she translates her observations into abstractions and often gives her works titles that offer viewers hints about her ideas. Whether reflected in her imagery or in the titles she gives her works, water has long been a recurring theme throughout her practice. She often translates waves into geometric, hard-edge patterns and likens this to the way a diver must conceptualize the physical geometry of the body when planning a dive.

Guild Hall is pleased to present an exhibition that Heilmann has had a strong desire to stage—one that brings together more than 40 works from a focused area of her output. The exhibition includes works on paper, ceramics, and paintings from the 1980s to the present.

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

Get Your Limited Edition Mary Heilmann + Guild Hall Tote Bag

Designed to celebrate artist Mary Heilmann and her 2025 Guild Hall exhibition, Mary Heilmann: Water Way, our Artist + Guild Hall collaboration is available as a very limited-edition tote bag featuring Heilmann’s 2024 work, Blue Sky Spot.

We are excited to share that this is the first time one of Heilmann’s iconic ceramic works has been reproduced as merchandise. 

100% cotton canvas with a zipper closure and long handles for over-the-shoulder toting. Large enough to carry all of your everyday belongings, or use it as an overnight bag for weekend jaunts to the Hamptons. 

Support Guild Hall while showing off your Water Way style. Get yours now, as once these sell out, they won’t be repeated!

Click HERE to order your tote today!

Guild Hall members receive 10% off with code MEMBER10. Not a member? Click HERE for more information and to join today.

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.