George Jo Mess

George Jo Mess was born in Cincinnati, OH in 1898, and his family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1899. At the age of 13, George received a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute. In 1918, he attended Butler University after graduating from high school and in 1919 he helped found the Circle Art Company and became known for work in commercial art. Three years later, George attended Columbia University studying composition and in 1921 he returned to Indianapolis, Indiana, and continued his commercial art business.

​In 1925, he founded the Circle Art Academy, where he taught from 1927 to 1932, and in 1929 he and his wife Evelynne Mess studied at the Fountainbleau School of Fine Arts in northern France.

​George exhibited widely throughout his career at such venues as the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Dayton Art Museum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He also exhibited his works in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome.

​The Mess Indianapolis home is located at 6237 Central Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46220 in the heart of Broad Ripple Village and is known as The Central Art Studio. The home is believed to still be owned by the Mess family.