10.11.25
Time Well Spent
Self taught and spiritually driven, LA based artist Wes Lang does not simply observe time – he claims it, shaping it through his intentional daily rituals and time with his family. This fills his life with meaning and allows him to create narrative-driven works that speak to his interest and internal life.
In the November chapter of Time Well Spent – our series celebrating those who spend time as beautifully as they keep it – we visit the Los Angeles home and studio of renowned American artist, Wes Lang.
Wes has a fascination with watches and has been a serious collector of major brands and independents. His interest in watches took root in his youth. His first watch came to be in a serendipitous, fairytale-like encounter. A young Wes was waiting with his mother for his father’s train to arrive. He walked over to the grassy hill which he loved to roll down. Wes rolled over a watch which he picked up and showed to his mother. She took him to turn it into the police department lost and found. Weeks later no one had claimed it. In a moment of luck, Wes got to keep the watch. His mother took him to get a velcro strap small enough for his child's wrist at the local men’s store– and there began his watch collection. He has since built his collection spanning decades and styles and writes an occasional column for GQ. Watches are essential to how he experiences time through his impressive life.
As a teenager, a biker-minded Wes Lang left his New Jersey home, not yet capitalizing on the artistic genius he would become known for. He supported himself with various odd jobs, including cleaning at a tattoo parlor, freelancing as a sign repairman, working as a sales clerk at a record store, and eventually handling art at the Guggenheim Museum. One day on his lunch break from the Guggenheim, Wes wandered over to the Tony Shafrazi gallery, summoned by the lingering presence of his artist heroes, Basquiat and Haring. There, by chance, he found a job with the installation crew – an intimate initiation into the illusive art world that profoundly expanded his perspective.
Soon after, his boss, Mark Pasek, “his first believer,” discovered Wes’s own unrealized creative prowess and offered him two months of total exploration at his new gallery: ten blank canvases, a couch in the back of the small storefront, and two ounces of weed. Lang fell into a hypnotic trance living and breathing his work, soundtracked only by Leonard Cohen’s Songs from a Room and Pedro the Lion’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend. In that still, suspended time, Lang created his breakthrough show, the first shown at Pasek’s new gallery. This body of work announced his distinct visual language.
The skulls and doodle-like figures that first filled his childhood notebooks, and that first show, still haunt his canvases today, anchoring his 2024 show, The Black Paintings, which follows the journey of skeleton “heroes” through 96 narrative-rich, cinematic pieces – their journey through time. His works are dense with song lyrics, lines from the Tao, and symbols of his present, serving as both a compass and timekeeping device. His paintings, like his tattoos that cover him entirely, chart the winding record of his life. Though time has passed his inspirations hold firm.
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Today, guided by Taoist philosophy and a transformative encounter with Ram Dass, Wes begins each morning with ten minutes of silence and a single line of a Taoist verse. He emphasizes the importance of letting his fresh mind breathe — honoring time by giving it space.
Wes lives with his wife and two sons in the suburbs of LA. He once had a large studio bustling with visitors but he now prefers the sanctuary of his quiet studio and his home. Spending time with the ones he loves has become paramount. Nights at the Chateau have been joyfully replaced by hours playing Hot Wheels with Otto, his son.
He recently witnessed a bird's nest being built outside a window of his home, while he and his wife prepared for the arrival of their second child. The unfolding of this process paralleled his new show, Thank You God, that was in progress. Birds were the central theme – a symbol of his late grandmother, an avid bird watcher – regenerated as a symbol of the arrival of his new son. Wes finished his final piece the day before he was born. Through time “symbols have the tendency to morph and change in meaning” Wes reflects.
At Urban Jürgensen, we believe the way we keep time shapes how we spend it. For Wes Lang, time is sacred – he gives it to art and family, symbols and watches.
What does Time Well Spent mean in your life?
I spend my time strictly with my wife and kids or in the studio. I spend my time doing only things I love. No distractions.
What do you do to feel most present?
I always stay present no matter what I’m doing.
How do you like to begin your day?
Spend 10-20 minutes in silence then read a verse of the Tao te Ching. Puts me in the right place to tackle each day.
Do you think about time as something you master or something you surrender to?
Ultimately both. I made a decision a long time ago to only spend my time with people I truly love and creating art. No distractions. Sometimes I’m the master of the moment and sometimes I have to surrender to the circumstances. Can’t set too many rules on time.
Can you share a moment recently where time seemed to stretch or slow down?
When my sons were born the entire universe stopped moving. Incredibly surreal feeling.
If you could time travel to a different point in history, when would it be?
To Switzerland in the late 40s and buy every watch I could get my hands on.
Where are the places you most love to spend time?
My house and studio.
My latest crush is:
My wife
A risk I took that changed my life is:
Dropping my entire life and moving to Los Angeles.
The most generous thing somebody has ever done for me is:
Too many things to list. Friends and strangers alike have been so helpful to me as far back as I can remember.
A challenge I overcame that I’m proud of is:
Panic attacks without using medication
November 10, 2025
By Wes Lang
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Time Well Spent
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