Jim Gaylord
Composure
April 7 - May 13, 2023
Opening Reception: April 7th 6-8PM

Deanna Evans Projects is pleased to present Composure, a solo exhibition of new works by Brooklyn-based artist Jim Gaylord from April 7 through May 13, 2023. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and the first in the gallery’s new Tribeca location.

Composure—a state of being in control—is an arguably elusive condition. Societies create systems and infrastructures, particularly in metropolitan areas, to streamline the rhythm of daily life, while dysfunction looms just beneath. Architecture and design can strive to counteract the chaos—the Art Deco boom in the U.S. following the 1918 influenza pandemic and World War I, for instance. Through a facade of sophistication, cultures establish a sense of order and security, pointing ahead (or perhaps behind) to better times.

For the artist, each of the works in the exhibition represents a domain where he is in complete control, however, the balance between familiarity and the unknown is in constant fluctuation. The shapes are cut out precisely by hand and assembled almost architecturally, referencing motifs found in geometry, design and nature. But the orderly mingles with the idiosyncratic, cartoonish or quirky, making them works that are both meticulous and mysterious.

The care with which the pieces are made suggests that they possess some functional purpose, while their eccentricity challenges that sense of utility. The effect recalls the aspirational impracticality behind grand, but improbable, designs like Oscar Niemeyer’s giant, balloon-like stadium at the Cité Olympique in Algiers or Isamu Noguchi’s unrealized Contoured Playground. Gaylord’s works point in many narrative directions, but avoid landing on a singular destination.

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Jim Gaylord (b. 1974 in Washington, NC) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He earned his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Berkeley Art Museum. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Gaylord has completed residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo, and is currently participating in the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program.