jason lord

North Carolina’s Jason Lord rarely has a design or object in mind when he starts.

Rather, the hyper-interdisciplinary artist begins with a question and “lets it bloom, through process, material exploration and iteration.”

“I like to work with what is readily available,” said Lord. “If I wanted to be specific at the risk of sounding absurd, I would more aptly call myself a bricoleur than an artist.”

Artist: Lord was born and grew up in rural Vermont. He attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he received a BFA in studio art. He also earned an MFA in studio art from the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Lord’s 25-year career as an interdisciplinary arts educator is deeply intertwined with his studio practice.

Studio: In his home studio in Durham, where he has lived for the past 30 years, Lord works on 2-D and new media work. He also has a storage unit for 3-D and spatial work.

Over the past two years, Lord has made much of his work at ten artist residencies, from North Carolina to Vermont.

In the beginning: “I can’t remember a time that I didn’t make art,” said Lord. “Though I haven’t always called it that.”

After teaching adolescents for 22 years, he stepped away from teaching and went back to school to formally engage with studio art in 2019.

Art: Drawing, print, collage, painting, sculpture, assemblage, video, sound and installation. His work ranges from $75 for a quick drawing or print to $20,000 for an immersive installation or large-scale commission.

What’s popular:

Full-room, immersive installations, though these can be harder for individuals to collect.
“The works that end up in exhibition spaces tend to be visually influenced by Bauhaus, the Constructivists and Japanese material culture,” said Lord.
Small wood and found object sculptures, photos, collages, experimental drawings and artist books.

Themes:

Relationship between repetition and variation.
Questions about time, archive, consciousness, the creative act, religion and pedagogy.
Quiet things and invisible things.

Through his work, Lord asks, “What does it mean to be human?” and “What can art do?” Lately, he been asking, “How can we build things together?”

Favorite tool: His paper cutter.

Inspirations:

The work and artists of Black Mountain College, especially Ruth Asawa, Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage.
Fluxus was an international movement of artists who used everyday actions, ordinary materials, play and participation to blur the boundaries between art and daily life.
Dada movement and Kurt Schwitters, a pioneering artist known for creating “Merz” art.
Artists, including: Tehching Hsieh, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, James Castle, Lygia Clark, Theaster Gates, Sister Corita Kent, El Anatsui, Julie Mehretu and Joseph Beuys. Also Judy Pfaff, Joseph Cornell, Lee Bontecou and Constantin Brancusi.
The written work of John Dewey, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paolo Freire, Alan Watts and bell hooks.

Special commission: Working on a major public project at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, where Lord is recording found objects and architectural forms from soon-to-be-demolished buildings on a site that served as psychiatric hospital buildings.

Lord then will transcribe them as a cyanotype-style image on the walls of a maintenance building.

Recent awards/honors:

ArtFields Grand Prize Winner ($50,000 award). Lake City, SC. 2026.
Snapdragon Fund Project Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation/VAE, Raleigh. 2026.
SPACES Cleveland ECHO Residency. Cleveland, OH. 2027.
McColl Center Artist residency, Charlotte, NC. 2025.
Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, Johnson, VT. 2024.
Hambidge Center Windgate Distinguished Fellowship, Rabun Gap, GA. 2024.
Peter Bullough Foundation residency, Winchester, VA. 2024.
NC Arts Council Artist Support Grant, Durham. 2025.

Recent projects:

From December 2025 through March I, 2026, Lord had two site-specific, immersive installations:

“A Tender House of Echoes,” installation at McColl Center, Charlotte.
“Ghost Choir,” a four-room, site-specific installation at the University of North Carolina’s Greensboro Project Space, an off-campus, multi-purpose art space and satellite gallery in downtown Greensboro.

What’s new: Building “The Ministry of Cardboard,” a site-responsive installation at the Scrap Exchange in Durham. Through July 31.

What’s next:

“Figs and Factures” at Pullen Arts Center in Raleigh. Aug. 2- Oct. 24. The exhibit will include photographs, drawings, and assemblages among an improvised wood and paper installation.
“Reject the Null,” a four-person show at Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC. Aug. 31- 11.

Where to buy: