February 5, 2009

Jim Gaylord: Cliffhanger

The late critic Paul Virilio noted the way in which digital media constantly strive to anticipate an "unknowable" passing event, creating a "surprise constituted by rupture." One may safely say that, in his new exhibition at Gregory Lind Gallery, New York-based painter Jim Gaylord is equally well-versed in visual disruptions. Mining a bevy of lowbrow summer blockbusters as source material, Gaylord's mise-en-scenes expose an alternate dimension of convoluted and distilled action sequences. Against scrims of dark pines, heaps of roiling objects bloom and fracture; elsewhere, forms are decimated under bleak, blue skies. While such a marriage of grace with violence is unmistakably cinematic, Gaylord's new tableaux are sure to subvert any Hollywood sponsor's message.

- Isaac Amala

• EXHIBITION: Jim Gaylord: Cliffhanger