"Oliver Twist" Opens Rental Gallery in East Hampton

[caption id="attachment_64543" align="alignnone" width="800"] Holly Coulis Tower of Oranges and Shadows, 2015, oil on canvas.[/caption]

By Michelle Trauring

All it took was a moment.

Everything had changed.

And suddenly, Manhattan had an expiration date. The city was no place to raise twins.

When they got the news, Joel Mesler and his wife, Sarah Aibel, started exploring their options immediately. Their son, Lev — a toddler at the time — observed his parents quietly.

“We started looking around, and not just in New York or America,” Mr. Mesler recalled, the nostalgia quickening his speech. “We were like, ‘Should we move to Costa Rica? What can we do? Can we start a commune in Vermont? Should we homestead in South Carolina?’ We had no idea what to do with our lives because we were always single and hustling and trying to make money, and Manhattan is a great place to do that.”

[caption id="attachment_64542" align="alignright" width="500"] Joel Mesler and his wife, Sarah Aibel.[/caption]

Last summer, an exhibition featuring Mr. Mesler’s work at the Surf Lodge in Montauk brought them to the East End, where they stayed with his friend and fellow artist Rashid Johnson in Sag Harbor.

He will remember it as, quite possibly, the greatest week of their lives.

“It was almost like it wasn’t real. Everyone was so happy,” he said. “As we were driving home, we were like, ‘Why don’t we move to the Hamptons?’”

They drove back out the following week, saw eight houses and fell in love with one the instant they pulled onto the long, windy dirt driveway. Three days later, they put in an offer.

As of January 15, the family of five are full-time East End residents, settled into their 3.6 acres deep in Sag Harbor — “We couldn’t be happier, oh my God,” Mr. Mesler said —with 3-year-old Lev headed to Ross School next year, and one-year-old his twin sisters, Ava and Noa, following shortly thereafter.

With their new chapter comes the reopening of Mr. Mesler’s Rental Gallery, what started as a labor of love in Los Angeles before moving to Manhattan and now East Hampton. Paying homage to its first show in New York, “Oliver Twist,” the eponymous exhibition is a time capsule of artists who made the gallery what it was, and will be again, he said.

“Keeping the ‘Rental’ name was really important, and so was the title of the show,” he said. “It makes no sense, ‘Oliver Twist,’ but at the time, I think I was like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s going to be no overhead lighting, the whole show is gonna be lit by candlelight.’ It was probably some dumb, bar, drunken conversation — but it stuck, you know? So now, fast forward 10 years later, I’m like, ‘Oliver Twist!’ And it makes no sense. The only foundation for it is that I did it before.”

Born on Devlin Drive — the street above the Whisky a Go Go — Mr. Mesler was as Los Angeles as they come: a product of a dysfunctional family who, eventually, found his way to the art world, earning his Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute.

“We all want something different than how we grew up, I guess. Or we’re just running from our demons,” he said, and then laughed, “I don’t f--kin’ know.”

Born in Chinatown, Los Angeles, circa 2004, was Rental Gallery, first in partnership with his friend and gallerist Dan Hug.

“He was always very aware of what was happening internationally in the art world, so we were like, ‘Let’s open a gallery where we can host international dealers to come to L.A., and then they’ll start to work with our artists and take them out to Poland and Berlin, and start this global dialogue,’” Mr. Mesler said. “So we did that and it worked! Kind of. We never did it for money. We did it for vanity and connections.”

Three years flew by in a blur of art and alcohol, Mr. Mesler said — “I was in my 20s then, I don’t remember much about that time,” he said — before he packed up shop and moved to New York, where he was determined to establish Rental as a business, not a passion project.

It worked, yet again. He would close up shop three years later to pursue other interests, but now, he’s ready to give it another go — bringing “city-slicking art and attitude” to the Hamptons, he said, eager to see if they want it.

“I think that’s part of the experiment and fun of it. I’m trying to bring almost the same aesthetic I had in New York out here and seeing if it translates. Instead of assimilating into my environment, I’m saying no,” he said. “And let’s see if they go for it. Let’s see if the people care.”

Hailing primarily from Los Angeles, Europe and New York, the 45 artists included in the show have worked with Mr. Mesler in some capacity through Rental over the years — from his idol Sherrie Levine to his friend Mr. Johnson, who will curate the gallery’s next show, to struggling artists in their late 20s just trying to get by.

“As Rental reemerges, I wanted the energy and spirit of everyone who helped make it what it was in the past,” Mr. Mesler said. “The idea with reopening Rental out here is that it can be a mix of representing artists again and hosting dealers. If it were Joel Mesler Gallery, people are more guarded. This is a more neutral, open model for people to feel welcome in. I have four offices in here, and so it’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to take the desk? Make some offers?’ It’s just like a hub. Being open to many different things is the point.”

[caption id="attachment_64541" align="alignleft" width="375"] Jonas Wood, "Untitled", 2014, lithograph and screenprint.[/caption]

The finishing touch at the shingle-style 87 Newtown Lane comes from Ohio-based artist Zachary Armstrong, who will hang a 6-foot-long carved, painted wooden fish above the doorway — not only for aesthetic purposes, but for a bit of superstitious luck.

“He heard somebody say once that if you hang a fish above your door, when a storm comes, it will protect your house. He’s like, ‘Yes, wooden fish above the door,’” Mr. Mesler said. “I think that will connect with people out here for sure.”

In the summer, the gallery will be commercially minded, Mr. Mesler said, with fast-moving exhibits coming in and out. But during the off-season, the flow will slow, and the gallerist will be found upstairs in the mezzanine, at work on his own paintings.

“I draw inspiration from wanting to be loved, probably first and foremost,” he said. “And then probably just the space to be able to do it and to put something into the world that people respond to and might like and want to live with. It’s a different way of communicating. When you have three children, you can’t go out at 2 a.m. and talk to 20 people in a given evening. But you can spend quiet time making paintings and still communicate with 20 people. It’s different things to do at different stages in your life.”

In a way, though the subject matter has shifted, making art transports him back to his former lives in Los Angeles and Manhattan, as do his friends who plan to visit this summer — their Sag Harbor guest room is already completely booked, he said — and imagining how the gallery will evolve and grow over the next 10 years.

With a lease like that, he said he’s here to stay.

“I’m not going nowhere,” he said in a playful accent. “No one can run me out of these parts. Like me or hate me, I’m here.”
“Oliver Twist” will open with a reception on Saturday, May 27, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Rental Gallery on Newtown Lane in East Hampton. The show will remain on view through June 17. For more information, call (631) 527-5524, or visit rentalgallery.us.