Emerging artist Stephen L. Hayes Jr. employs charged imagery, historic research, and rigorous craftsmanship to create visceral installations that probe the troubled history of race relations in America and present day challenges. His breakthrough exhibition Cash Crop first presented in 2010, focused on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the New World economy it fueled for centuries. Working in a variety of media from cast concrete to crocheted twine to blacksmithing, Hayes will focus his time at the Center on the development of a new performance-based installation entitled How to Make a Dollar that will probe the consumer culture associated with hip-hop and popular media.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, Hayes received his Bachelor of Arts degree from North Carolina Central University in 2006 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2010. He has participated in residencies at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, New York and the 701 Center for Contemporary Art of Columbia, South Carolina.
Stephen L. Hayes Jr. is the inaugural Missy Luczak-Smith and Doug Smith Fellow at McColl Center for Art + Innovation. The fellowship established in the Smith’s name will provide, each year for the next five years, a regional artist with a studio residency.