GREGORY HAYES
Gregory Hayes is based in Brooklyn, New York. Hayes began studying art with original Drop City artist Clark Richert at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, where he received his BFA in Painting and was named Most Distinguished Artist. He received his MFA in Painting from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College where he studied with Vito Acconci.
"In my work I explore how paint can be used through various tools and techniques to reinvent what it means to mix colors and present patterns through everything from mathematically inspired grids on canvas to organically placed works on paper. My objective is to heighten the viewer’s sensitivity to subtle variations and to reveal that pictorial complexity can be achieved through a restricted vocabulary."
— Gregory Hayes
Color Array
In my Color Array series, I use a predetermined pattern based on the Archimedean spiral combined with the unpredictability of the interaction of my process and the materials used to produce systemic images that are fueled by accidental nuances within confined spaces. I lay down drips of paint on pre-drawn ¼ inch grids. This involves applying paint to the surface of the canvas and allowing it to form natural convex circles. The application process causes there to be multiple colors within each individual drip, and the proportions of the colors change gradually as the process continues. Visually, the drips coalesce to reveal a larger pattern. I try to control the amount of paint in each region equally, but ultimately the paint has a life of its own due to its physical properties and to gravity. I welcome these chance interventions.
—Gregory Hayes
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Amalgamation
The paintings in my Amalgamation series are based on the concept of brushless painting, in which the paint is loaded into a dropper several colors at a time and then released onto the surface of the canvas. As the paint flows through the dropper, colors mix and form swirling convex drips that create a field of resonating color and complex spatial structures. My goal is to expose the paint’s natural ability to form shapes and patterns on its own after it is applied to the surface of the canvas.
— Gregory Hayes
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Ribbon
For the Ribbon series of paintings, I want to push past the typical end point of my process and make that the new beginning point. I pour paint onto a flat, smooth surface in individual 1/4" strips with approximately equal lengths, using a continuous flow of different color paint to create a swirling gradient from one line of paint to the next, then let it dry. After that, I peel off the dried paint strips one at a time by hand, before they adhere to the smooth surface. I usually consider my paintings finished once the paint dries, however, for these paintings I fell the actual painting process starts in the next step.
I then arrange the ribbons of paint onto a canvas. I begin by placing the strips in the order in which they were created, but partly overlapping each other. I attempt to place them as evenly as possible, but also allow the inconsistencies and variations in the dried paint ribbons to guide the process. The overlapping creates texture, and the variation in the line and color produces an optical effect, both of which I welcome. The end result is a landscape of softly shifting colors.
Overall, these paintings reveal to me that even a slight variation in the order of a process can create new pictorial complexity.
—Gregory Hayes
statement | press release
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Reticulum
For the Reticulum series of paintings, I want to push past the typical end point of my process and make that the new beginning point. I pour paint onto a flat, smooth surface in individual 1/4" strips with approximately equal lengths, using a continuous flow of one color at a time to create multiple strips of acrylic. I repeat that process using nine selected colors total, then let it dry. After that, I peel off the dried paint strips one at a time by hand, before they adhere to the smooth surface. I usually consider my paintings finished once the paint dries, however, for these paintings I felt the actual painting process starts in the next step.
I then weave the ribbons together to form tightly knit nets in a relatively rectangular shape. I then mounted them onto museum board. The overlapping of the paint strips creates texture, and the variation in the line and color produces an optical effect, both of which I welcome. The end result is a web of dramatically shifting colors.
—Gregory Hayes
statement | press release
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