Jay Sylvester
Jay Sylvester spent his youth immersed in the forests and fields of New England, where he built elaborate, mildly dangerous forts and secret shelters for his friends. This early impulse toward primitive world-building set him on an artistic path that would resurface decades later as a central theme of his practice. While studying at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in the 1980s, Sylvester shifted his focus to the urban landscape, mining the city’s discarded ephemera and detritus as both material and subject. His practice evolved through a sustained engagement with processes of accumulation, transformation, and renewal.
Coming full circle, Sylvester now divides his time between his studios on rural Long Island and in California’s Coachella Valley, drawing materials and inspiration from the distinct ecologies of each landscape.
Throughout his practice, Sylvester explores the existential complexity of humanity’s relationship with the natural world: the hubristic desire to control what is ultimately too vast to comprehend; the inevitability of entropy; the acceptance of mortality; and the enduring tension between oneness and separateness.
Born in Methuen, Massachusetts, 1963
He currently resides and works in Bellport, NY and Palm Springs, CA
Education
BFA, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 1985
Group exhibitions
2026
Changing Terrain: Regional Artists Interpret Our Landscape, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA
The Bird Song Project, East End Arts Council + North Fork Audobon Society, Greenport, NY
A Woven World, BCMT Gallery, Kingston, NY
Interwoven: Everything Is Connected to Everything, Dernier Cri Gallery, New York, NY
Solastalgia, Kippi Leonard Gallery, Palm Springs, CA Petite, BCMT Gallery, Kingston, NY
Driven to Transform, Art All Ways at The Vista Library, Vista, CA
100 Pieces, Steelhead, Santa Monica, CA
2025
Out of The Shadows, Carter Burden Gallery, New York, NY
Entangled, 11 West Gallery, East End Arts Council, Riverhead, NY
Sculpture on the Trail, CEED, Brookhaven, NY
Nature ArtNOW, Art Gotham, New York, NY
The Love Letter Show, The Rusha & Co. Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Artists & Objects, Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Museum Gallery, Bellport, NY
The Limits of Control, Kippi Leonard Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2024
Desert Noir, Kippi Leonard Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
100 Pieces, Steelhead, Santa Monica, CA
Visual Poetry + Color, Ferarri Gallery, Dallas, TX
Sculpture on the Trail, CEED, Brookhaven, NY
2023
100 Pieces, Steelhead, Santa Monica, CA
Sculpture on the Trail, CEED, Brookhaven, NY
Fractals and Figures, The NYC Culture Club, New York, NY
2022
Earth / Sea / Sky, The Sticks & Stones Gallery, Amagansett, NY
Sculpture on the Trail, CEED, Brookhaven, NY
2019
An Artist’s Place, Marquee Projects, Bellport, NY
MvVO Art Show, New York, NY
The 81st Artists Exhibition, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY
100 Pieces, Steelhead, Santa Monica, CA
Slide Slam, The PAC Gallery, Patchogue, NY
Collections
Jay Sylvester is collected by various private collectors and public companies in the U.S.
Recognition
2026 Artist in Residence, Art Omi
2026 Milton & Sally Avery Art Foundation Fellowship 2023 Saint-Gaudens Fellowship nominee
Professional contributions
2026 Visiting Artist, Brookhaven School District 2025 Visiting Artist, South Country Education Fund
2024 Visiting Artist, Post-Morrow Foundation
Press
Cultured magazine, September, 2025 Collector Questionare with Francis J. Greenburger https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2025/09/12/art-collector-francis-j-greenburger-omi-awards/
Collections
Jay Sylvester is collected by various private collectors and public companies in the U.S.
Represented by
BCMT Gallery, Kingston NY www.blackcreekmt.com