Jim Gaylord - Odd Facade

About

In his new works, Gaylord examines the coexistence of the architectural and the anatomical. He creates new spaces where passages of geometry and ornamentation formally interweave with the curvilinear contours of the body. The resulting white, stone-like surfaces resemble bas-relief facades embellishing fictional city skyscrapers.

Recalling both Henri Matisse’s cutouts and Louise Nevelson’s monochrome assemblages, Gaylord's process involves cutting up and manipulating heavy watercolor paper through various sculptural techniques, then layering it to gradually form a low relief surface. The ever-growing pile of paper scraps in his studio, accumulated over several years, remains a constant source of sustenance for the work. A random shape pulled from the heap may become the starting point for a new composition, explored first through small, improvisational collage studies, then realized on a larger, more complex scale.

Gaylord expands upon this duality of time through his elusive imagery. Simultaneously pointing to the past while imagining the future, it evokes a sense of temporal disorientation. Yet, within this uncanny state there remains a sense of order and logic in his use of formalism, subsequently hinting at a hidden code within his work.

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Jim Gaylord earned an MFA from The University of California, Berkeley in 2005 and a BA from The University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 1997. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Berkeley Art Museum and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Gaylord has completed residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo and has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Gaylord lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.