ERIC WESLEY

Eric Wesley (b. 1973, Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BA from the University of California, Los Angeles (1996) and is the co-founder, with Piero Golia, of Mountain School of Art (MSA) in Los Angeles, the oldest continuous artist-run school in California.

Wesley works across sculpture, installation, and painting, producing objects that fuse ironic commentary, social criticism, and performance with highly crafted construction. His practice operates as cross-media inquiry into what he positions against contemporary culture’s “numbing surrogates” — work made with sustained enthusiasm in the original sense of the word: deep interest, zeal, and earnest engagement with material and idea.

 
 

He has participated in the 2004 and 2022 Whitney Biennials at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the 2014 Made in L.A. Biennial at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include MOCA Los Angeles and Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, alongside presentations at Sprovieri (London, 2019), Pio Pico (Los Angeles, 2019), Galleria Fonti (Naples, 2018 and 2012), Bortolami Gallery (Cahokia, Illinois, 2016), and Maureen Paley (London).

Group exhibitions include Sculpture Center, New York; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux; Fundación Jumex, Mexico City; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; MoMA P.S.1, New York; and the Studio Museum in Harlem. His work is held in public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Aishti Foundation, Beirut.

For his 2006 MOCA Los Angeles exhibition, Wesley constructed a large-scale installation comprising a rotating floor, a wrecked Vespa motorbike, and other iconic elements — a foundational work that established his sustained engagement with sculpture as systemic, performative, and architecturally embedded. Bank of Timbuctoo (2025), exhibited at Basel Social Club 2025 through Post-American Fine Arts, presents a briefcase filled with hand-painted denominations of a fictional nation.

Wesley’s relationship with Bobby Jesus and Post-American Fine Arts extends over a decade, including presentations at Bobby Jesus and Consultants Gallery (Chinatown, Los Angeles, 2015) and group exhibitions in Los Angeles (2016). He continues to work with Post-American Fine Arts through sustained studio engagement and selected projects.

 

Installation View: Bank of Timbuctoo (2025), exhibited at Basel Social Club 2025

Eric Wesley

 

  • Eric Wesley (b. 1973, Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is co-founder of MSA (Mountain School of Art) in Los Angeles, the oldest continuous artist-run school in California.

    Wesley is a conceptual artist working across various mediums. His work explores the interactions of fine art with popular culture, science, and humor — sculpture, installation, and painting that fuse ironic commentary, social criticism, and performance with highly crafted construction. His practice operates as cross-media inquiry into what he positions against contemporary culture's "numbing surrogates" — work made with sustained enthusiasm in the original sense: deep interest, zeal, and earnest engagement with material and idea.

  • BA, University of California, Los Angeles
    Co-founder, MSA (Mountain School of Art), Los Angeles

  • 2024 — Turning Tables / Timeshare, Los Angeles
    2023 — Swizzle Twiddle Fiddle Sticks, Bortolami (The Upstairs at 39 Walker), New York
    2022 — Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet As It's Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art
    2021 — Springweather and people, Bortolami (39 Walker), New York
    2019 — Timbuctoo, Pio Pico, Los Angeles
    2019 — Martha Rosler/Eric Wesley, slash
    2018 — Reputation, Galleria Fonti, Naples; Sprovieri, London
    2018 — Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles
    2018 — Red Bull Studios, New York
    2017 — University of Disasters, Bortolami, New York
    2016 — ISOSCELES TRAPEZOID ARCH, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
    2016 — Eric Wesley / St. Louis, Bortolami Gallery, Cahokia, IL
    2015 — Some Work, 356 Mission, Los Angeles
    2014 — Daily Progress Status Reports, Bortolami Gallery, New York
    2013 — Hybrid Naples: L'Ordine delle Idee Deve Procedere Secondo L'Ordine Delle Cose, curated by Jörg Heiser, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples
    2012 — The Natural Order of Things, Galleria Fonti, Naples
    2012 — 2 new works, Bortolami Gallery, New York
    2011 — The Same 'Ol New Frontier, China Art Objects, Los Angeles
    2010 — D'Carts Blanche and New Paintings, Bortolami Gallery, New York
    2009 — New Realistic Figures, Maureen Paley, London
    2008 — Ship Shape Shit Shelf and the Empfang Box, Feurig59, Berlin
    2007 — Spaference Room, Bortolami Gallery, New York
    2007 — Spafice, Foundation Morra Greco, Naples
    2006 — MOCA FOCUS: Eric Wesley, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
    2006 — Audi, Meyer-Riegger Gallery, Karlsruhe
    2006 — You say Tomato, I say Tomato, Galleria Fonti, Naples
    2006 — Eric Wesley, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
    2005 — Bowie-Van Valen Gallery, Amsterdam
    2004 — Pico Youth Center, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles
    2002 — Eric Wesley, Metro Pictures, New York

  • 2025 — Bank of Timbuctoo, Basel Social Club, Post-American Fine Arts, Basel
    2022 — Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet As It's Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
    2017 — From DADA to TA-DA!, Fisher Parrish Gallery, New York
    2017 — 99 Cents or Less, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
    2016 — I Beam U Channel, Bortolami, New York
    2014 — Made in L.A. Biennial, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
    2014 — A Public Fiction, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
    2013 — Endless Bummer II / Still Bummin', Marlborough Chelsea, New York
    2011 — Making Histories – Changing Views of the Collection, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
    2011 — Greater LA, 483 Broadway, SoHo, New York
    2011 — BigMinis: Fetishes of Crisis, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux
    2010 — The Artist's Museum, MOCA Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles
    2010 — Les enfants terribles, Fundación Colección Jumex, Mexico
    2009 — Second Nature: Dean Valentine Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
    2008 — Los Angeles Confidential, Centre d'Art du Parc Saint Léger, France
    2008 — Amateurs, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
    2007 — Prague Biennial, Prague
    2007 — Substance & Surface, Bortolami, New York
    2006 — Alien Nation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
    2006 — The Gold Standard, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York
    2006 — Axis of Praxis, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
    2005 — 100 Artists See God, curated by John Baldessari and Meg Cranston, ICA, London
    2004 — Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
    2004 — 3 Fireplaces and 2 Bathtubs, Museum für Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna
    2003 — Fade (1990-2003), curated by Malik Gaines, Craft and Folk Art Museum at the Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles
    2001 — Freestyle, Studio Museum, Harlem, New York
    2001 — Snapshot: New Art From Los Angeles, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
    2001 — Purloined, Artists Space, New York

    • The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

    • MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

    • Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

    • Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy

    • Nomas Foundation, Rome, Italy

    • Colección Jumex, Mexico City

    • Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon

  • ArtReview — Gracie Hadland, "Eric Wesley's Funny Money" (Oct 2024)
    The Berlin Journal — Jan Tumlir, "On Eric Wesley" (Apr 2022)
    Artforum — Max Lakin, "Addicted to the Shindig" (Apr 2022); Maria Giovanna Mancini (Nov 2018); Jan Tumlir, "Infinite Jest: Jan Tumlir on Eric Wesley's The Bell" (Feb 2017); Johanna Burton (Mar 2008); Sohrab Mohebbi, "Best of 2019" (Dec 2019)
    Mousse Magazine — Eric Wesley and Jordan Wolfson, "Build It Up So It Collapses and Falls Back on Itself" (Oct 2019)
    ARTnews — Andrew Russeth, "Art Los Angeles Contemporary Fair Lifts Off" (Feb 2019)
    The New York Times — Alan Feuer, "Art Dealers Move Out of the Gallery and Into a Taco Bell" (Oct 2016); Ken Johnson, "Eric Wesley D'Carts Blanche and New Paintings" (May 2010)
    Paper Magazine — Meagan Fridette, "Eric Wesley Brings NYC Its Newest Combination Taco Bell/Pizza Hut" (Mar 2018)
    Wallpaper* — Pei-Ru Keh, "City Limits: Bortolami Gallery's 'Artist/City'" (Aug 2016)
    Chicago Tribune — Cindy Dampier, "Eric Wesley's quest for high-art fame leads to a Taco Bell" (Jul 2016)
    Brooklyn Rail — Lucy Li, "Eric Wesley Daily Progress Status Reports" (Oct 2014)
    The Wall Street Journal — Peter Plagens (Feb 2012)

    • SOME WORK (Ooga Booga, 2015)

    • Eric Wesley (MOCA Focus Series, MOCA, 2006)

  • Co-founder, Mountain School of Art (MSA), Los Angeles — the oldest continuous artist-run school in California

 

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