For the past several years, School of Visual Arts (SVA) alumnus Jason Bard Yarmosky has been winning art world praise for his ongoing series of affectionate, offbeat portraits of his grandparents, Len and Elaine Bard. Working variously with oils and graphite to create his painstakingly detailed depictions, Yarmosky has used his project to examine the complexities of aging and capture the wisdom and experience accrued over a long, well-lived life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our society, we don\u2019t celebrate getting older,\u201d he says. \u201cWe celebrate youth, but it\u2019s inevitable that we all age. So why can\u2019t we celebrate the full life cycle?\u201d<\/p>\n
Yarmosky\u2019s professional career began shortly after his 2010 graduation from SVA, the college of art and design in New York City, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. Later that year, he secured his first gallery representation after his work was shown in SVA\u2019s booth at Miami Art Week \u2014 one of contemporary art\u2019s most highly anticipated annual events. Since then, he has received an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, a prestigious award given to emerging figurative artists; participated in dozens of group and solo exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad; and been written up in such publications as Artforum<\/em>, Complex<\/em> and Juxtapoz<\/em>.<\/p>\n Thanks to their status as collaborators and subject of Yarmosky\u2019s paintings, his grandparents \u2014 who are now in their 90s \u2014 have won their share of attention, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they come to my openings they\u2019re treated like stars,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me that I\u2019m using my art to explore things that I think about in life \u2014 the things that interest me the most \u2014 and that I can do it with the people I\u2019m the closest with. That\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, aging comes with its problems, health and otherwise. After Mrs. Bard was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s, Yarmosky and his grandparents decided to continue with their collaboration, given the importance it\u2019s grown to assume in all of their lives. \u201cSomewhere,\u201d Yarmosky\u2019s 2017 exhibition at the University of Maine Museum of Art, was an in-depth exploration of her condition.<\/p>\n \u201cMy large-scale portraits study expressions of dementia, confronting the viewer with psychological vulnerability,\u201d he says. \u201cThey respond to the loss of control and the subconscious mind, speaking to a dreamlike state, a place intangible to those not experiencing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Yarmosky is currently represented by Aeroplastics Contemporary in Brussels. For more information, visit jasonyarmosky.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"