Rachel Hayes
Land Lines
May 16 - June 27, 2020
Installation View: Rachel Hayes, Land Lines
“When I think about what landscape drawing means to me, I think of fields of tulips in Holland, beaches scattered with hundreds of windbreakers in New Jersey, lines of laundry running between buildings, textiles lying out to dry in India, rows of corn and wheat in the Midwest, Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, the surrounded islands of Christo and Jean-Claude, and the sprayed paint from Katharina Grosse covering buildings and walls...knowing about, and seeing all these ways of creating markings on the land has always had an impact on my imagination.” – Rachel Hayes
Lowell Ryan Projects is pleased to present Land Lines, a solo exhibition by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based artist Rachel Hayes. Land Lines features twelve large-scale panels composed of colorful fabric segments sewn into perpendicular, grid-like arrangements. The polyester, nylon, and cotton fabric pieces, varying in size and opacity, are stitched together creating works that utilize painterly games of color, composition, and light. The materiality of the panels creates an engagement between the site, the work, and the viewpoints created.
Ethereal and geometric, each panel staggered throughout the gallery reaches from floor to ceiling at 13 feet high. Viewers will be encouraged to wander through the maze-like installation and experience shifting patterns of color and light as sheer sections frame the panels behind and around them. Confronted with the scale of Hayes’ work, viewers’ perceptions of space are challenged, while the rhythm of pattern begs the viewer to slow down and contemplate the experience.
Hayes interjects color and form into both architectural and natural environments using scale and the inherent responsiveness of the delicate fabric to create reflective experiences. She sometimes installs and photographs her work in nature where, billowing in the wind, the pieces insert themselves into the surrounding environment. When installed indoors, the works ripple in response to viewers and come alive when seen.
The exhibition title Land Lines references literal lines such as horizon lines or sight lines and in the case of this exhibition, the architecture of the gallery and the intersection of the work within the space, the clean lines of the handmade panels crisscrossing the room.
Rachel Hayes was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and lives and works in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hayes received her BFA in Fiber from the Kansas City Art Institute, and her MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Often using fabric to create large-scale work, she is interested in inserting color and form into both built and natural environments. She is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Award in Painting and Sculpture, Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial Fellowship in Sculpture, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship in Sculpture, Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture, and a Charlotte Street Fund Award. Hayes has attended the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program, New York, NY; Sculpture Space Residency, Utica, NY; Art Omi International Artists' Residency, Ghent, NY; Roswell Artist-in-Residence program in Roswell, NM; and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship in Tulsa, OK. She has exhibited her work at institutions including the Sculpture Center in New York; Taubman Museum of Art, Virginia; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; Roswell Museum of Art, New Mexico; Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, New Hampshire; and at galleries such as Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Bravin Lee Programs, New York, NY; and ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA. Recently, Hayes has collaborated with the Italian fashion house Missoni, culminating with a solo exhibition during Milan Design Week. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The Cut, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Artforum among others.
