Guild Hall in East Hampton presents its first gallery exhibit of 2026 with “Jason Bard Yarmosky: Time Has Many Faces,” a major solo exhibition on view from January 25 through April 19. The exhibition brings together new and recent paintings by Jason Bard Yarmosky, whose work examines aging, time, and memory with remarkable intimacy and emotional depth.
Born in 1987 in New York, Jason Bard Yarmosky has long been drawn to the subject of aging, a fascination that began in childhood through his close relationship with his grandparents, who were six decades older than he was. Growing up, he frequently visited museums, noting the persistent prioritization of youth and idealized beauty throughout art history. His work challenges and expands that visual tradition, offering a broader, more resonant representation of lived experience.
For over ten years, Yarmosky’s grandparents were the central subjects of his portraiture. Through them, he explored the nuanced emotional terrain of growing older — vulnerability, care, humor, and profound wisdom. His paintings celebrate later life as a space where individuality, imagination, and dignity endure, resisting cultural tendencies to marginalize the aging body.
Yarmosky’s practice combines 17th- and 18th-century painting techniques with a distinctly contemporary sensibility. Dreamlike interiors, theatrical costumes, and staged tableaux heighten the emotional register of his work, using costuming to both conceal and reveal identity. Masks, uniforms, and imagined roles become markers of play — an element of life often discouraged in adulthood yet reclaimed in the freedom of later years. His work moves fluidly between tenderness and absurdity, acknowledging the weight of mortality while embracing humor, curiosity, and celebration.
The East End of Long Island holds a deep personal resonance for Yarmosky. He has visited the region since early childhood and returned to his cousin’s home — architect Andrew Geller’s iconic Double Diamond House — in 2020 following the passing of his grandparents. The return offered a restorative period for both his life and practice, infusing his recent work with renewed reflection and clarity.
“In keeping with the East End’s longstanding role as a place of respite and reflection for artists, Yarmosky came here during a pivotal, transitional moment in his practice. As a young artist, he has engaged the subject of aging for more than a decade with remarkable grace and sensitivity, and this exhibition brings together works connected by a throughline of portraiture in which his keen powers of observation reveal an ability to truly see his subjects,” said Melanie Crader, Guild Hall’s Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts.
“Since childhood I have been fascinated by time and aging. Every child is eager to grow up, but my grandparents taught me if we’re lucky we grow old,” shared Jason Bard Yarmosky. “Drawing and painting has given me a unique opportunity to explore the time I have through experiencing the people around me. The contrast between society’s emphasis on celebrating youth and my personal connection to aging influenced my artistic practice. Additionally, in a time heavily influenced by technology, I find myself drawn more towards the role portrait painting has played throughout history. There is something intimate about painting someone, as the portrait becomes both a reflection of the subject and myself in that moment.”
This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with support from Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar, and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
On view concurrently in the Marks Family Gallery South will be Liberty Labs: A Decade Of Design, marking the 10th anniversary of the Liberty Labs Foundation, co-founded by Sag Harbor native Evan Yee. The exhibition will bring together work by all the collective’s members, past and present, reflecting on their shared commitment to art, design, and community, and will draw inspiration from the room’s history as a salon, a space where art, music, and conversation once converged.