Rachel Hayes
New Works
November 7 - December 19, 2020
Lowell Ryan Projects is pleased to present nine new works by Rachel Hayes. Utilizing Hayes’ process of building with fabrics and other flexible materials, these kinetic works use items of clothing as their foundation. Hanging in the air a dress is re-appropriated, using geometric cuts of fabric and theatrical color gel panels that catch the light and move in relation to their surroundings. Hayes frequently refers back to a visit to the Chartres Cathedral in France earlier in her life, and the experience of viewing the stained glass windows in a religious setting as an influence on her practice, in addition to her studies and influences in craft, abstract movements, and land art. These new works offer an intimate and self-referential exploration in contrast to larger installation-based works.
“When I am no longer feeling a piece of clothing fits my personal style, or if I am out at an estate sale or thrift store and am drawn to a certain garment, I bring it to my studio and consider it as something to respond to. Sort of a readymade object ripe for intervention. The garments pose a new site-specific challenge and contain their own hand-built architecture as well as a history of use and the body that once inhabited them. It is an intimate way for me to work on a component that can stand alone yet also has the possibility of becoming part of a larger installation. Viewed alone, the pieces have a haunting beauty that highlights the human form, but more specifically, the absence of the body.” - Rachel Hayes
“I took some of these clothing pieces to the prairies of South Dakota this summer, a place I often go to, and hung them in the windows of an old barn. As the barn swallows swarmed around me, I looked through the clothes to see the wind blowing the prairie grass. An old metal gas tank sat in the tall grass, unused for decades. The sun’s rays shined through the inlaid plastic and projected saturated color onto the decrepit wooden boards and weeds peeking through. The experience of seeing the landscape, the bygone clothes, the worn-down barn, the warm sun, while listening to the swooping birds and gusty wind was almost too much to bear. It was so beautiful.” - Rachel Hayes
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.
