Found Time by Matt Byrd
Exploring the concept of time, sculptor Matt Byrd presents 13 new works in stone, clay and salvaged timber at Zarolat in Brooklyn.
At Zarolat in Dumbo, Brooklyn, sculptor Matt Byrd’s exhibition Found Time gathers stone, clay and salvaged timber into a quietly charged conversation about duration and change. Curated by Zarolat founder, architect Zeynep Arolat, the solo show presents 13 works that chart Byrd’s evolving relationship with material and process, bringing the language of masonry and ceramics into a gallery setting that feels more like an intimate studio than a traditional white cube.
Time sits at the centre of Byrd’s practice. Working primarily with found stone, he treats each piece as both object and witness, allowing traces of previous use and environment to remain present in the work. Marks of carving are deliberately left visible; the rawness of the rock is never entirely polished away. “Time is like an object to me,” he reflects – something he can hold and work with rather than an abstract idea. Each sculpture feels as though it contains multiple lives, folding earlier purposes into its current form. “Each piece contains time – it has seen other places and other purposes,” he says, and that sense of accumulated experience sits close to the surface.
Alongside hand-carved stone pieces, Found Time introduces a body of ceramic works that signal a new, parallel trajectory. Works such as Jughead, created during a residency at Shiro Oni Studio in Onishi, Japan, and Faces on the Wall 01 and 02 speak to the ceramic traditions of Byrd’s home state of North Carolina, in particular the expressive face jugs of folk potter Jim McDowell. Other sculptures, including Sardine and A Viewpoint – developed during an eight-month residency at Centro Internazionale di Scultura in Peccia, Switzerland – read as interlocking forms where negative space becomes as active as the carved mass.
Byrd’s tools remain intentionally simple – hammer, chisel and grinder for stone, wooden tools and his hands for clay – giving the material space to assert its own character. Salvaged timber beams used as plinths extend this sensibility into the room itself, reinforcing Zarolat’s broader interest in material intelligence, craft and the dialogue between architecture and art.
Found Time is Zarolat’s second solo exhibition since opening in 2024 and underlines the gallery’s commitment to work that is both tactile and reflective.
Found Time is at Zarolat, 140 Plymouth Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, until 14 December 2025.
