Jay Gard – The Beginning of Shaping
KORNFELD Galerie is pleased to announce our first exhibition with artist Jay Gard (*1984, in Halle, Germany) titled The Beginning of Shaping in our special event venue 69salon.
This exhibition will show a variety of works going from paintings to sculptures, objects and a mixture of them. All these works correlate to Jays distinctive venues of creating objects that become pieces of art on their own, capturing his distinctive style that dabbles between functionality in design with his adventurous artistic aesthetic that is reminiscent of the 1970s.
KORNFELD Galerie is pleased to announce its first exhibition with artist Jay Gard (1984, Halle, Germany), titled The Beginning of Shaping, presented in the special event venue 69salon.
The exhibition presents a wide range of works, from paintings and sculptures to objects and hybrid forms. All works relate to Jay Gard’s distinctive approach to creating objects that function as autonomous artworks. His practice moves between functionality in design and an adventurous artistic aesthetic reminiscent of the 1970s.
The idea that art possesses an inherent rationality was articulated by German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in his late Aesthetic Theory (1970). Adorno suggested that artistic rationality is inseparably linked to impulsive expression. While these concepts appear contradictory, neither can exist without the other—rationality cannot be understood without mimesis, and vice versa.
Jay Gard’s upbringing in East Germany, where limited access to consumer goods encouraged people to create their own objects and clothing, was formative in shaping his artistic roots. This background, combined with influences from Goethe, Kandinsky, Runge, and thinkers oscillating between rationality and mysticism, strongly informs his work. The Bauhaus approach—seeking to unite individual artistic vision with principles of mass production, function, and practicality—also plays a significant role in his practice.
Gard constructs art objects that merge aesthetics and rationality. His works are characterized by strict geometric forms and conceptual structures, primarily composed of wood, plywood, and steel, and finished with industrial paint. Traces of the construction process—such as scrub marks, angles, and measurement calculations—are often intentionally left visible. The exhibition explores the duality of these components, creating a balance where art and design intertwine.
The viewer is invited to experience Gard’s deep engagement with space and installation, as well as the visual, auditory, and functional relationships between objects and viewers. The exhibition includes outdoor sculptures in which metal and wood interact with nature, three-dimensional wall works, small-scale abstract sculptures, and design-inspired objects that unite functionality and art for art’s sake.
Jay Gard studied at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. After influential periods working as an assistant to Tom Sachs in New York and Thomas Demand in Berlin, he continued his studies in Joachim Blank’s Installation and Space class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. He has received multiple awards, including the Bauhaus Dessau 100-Year Jubilee Residency (2019), during which he designed three editions of Marcel Breuer’s B9 chair from 1926 in collaboration with Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Thonet GmbH, as well as an art grant from the Kunstfonds Foundation in Bonn.
His work has been presented in numerous national and international exhibitions, including at the Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center (Vilnius), Haus am Lützowplatz / IG Metall Exhibition Space (Berlin), Warte für Kunst (Kassel), and Museum Gunzenhauser (Chemnitz), as well as in galleries worldwide. Gard has realized many permanent outdoor installations, including the five-meter-high sculpture Sanssouci at the Potsdamer Rechenzentrum. One of the most significant publications on his work is Jay Gard: Form und Farbe, published by Lubok Verlag.
