Stephen Hayes | a democracy of images
November 2 - December 30, 2023
The Elizabeth Leach Gallery is delighted to welcome back Stephen Hayes for his 21st solo show. This exhibition, a democracy of images, pushes the boundaries of his impressionistic landscapes, utilizing color and dynamic brushwork to create enthralling compositions.
Hayes is unafraid to deliver the unexpected throughout the peaceful compositions of this show. A hazy blue sky may be interrupted by a brash sweep of red, or an expanse of green field peppered with bright blue drip lines. His improvisational brush work skillfully guides the viewer’s eye, leading them through the landscapes with diligent attention to which details require a visual break or fresh pop of color. The collective title for this body of work, a democracy of images is an allusion to our relative willingness to believe what we see, in the face of what we know. We see the beauty of ‘place’ and find ourselves able or unable to reconcile the truth of current events as they relate to that beauty. Over the last several years, Hayes has used Google Earth images as inspiration and source material for his paintings. Hayes continues this practice in his new series, however the paintings that depict images of Ukraine and Kenya are a response to outdated images of those countries found online. Some of the ‘current’ resource photos available are from as long ago as 2003 and clearly do not illustrate today’s conflicts. As a result, they ask us to reconcile the contradiction between belief and truth. The images from around this country do the same. In the U.S. we are faced with the need to reconcile ongoing inequities predicated on hierarchies of class, race, gender, with a history of violent genocide against Indigenous peoples. The land is beautiful and full of poetry, and in this country all of it has been stolen from an Indigenous populace. The question remains: should one focus on the solace of beauty? Is the magical illusion of Google Earth a benefit or a distraction for us as we seek to reconcile this truth? Is the premise of ‘democracy’ an equivalent act of artful deception that we are constantly asked to address? Hayes expresses a staggering dichotomy with these tranquil landscapes while deftly illustrating his skill as a painter in capturing their natural beauty.
Stephen Hayes has shown his work locally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), The Art Gym at Marylhurst University (Marylhurst, OR), Northwest Museum of Art and Culture (Spokane, WA), American Culture Center (Sapporo and Nagoya, Japan), and The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.). He has had several commissions for public art projects in the region, and his works can be found in the collections of Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), New York Public Library (New York, NY), Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), University of Oregon (Eugene, OR), and Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel (Portland, OR), as well as numerous private and public collections. In 2013 Hayes was the subject of a 30 year career retrospective at the Hoffman Gallery at Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR), which included a fully illustrated catalogue. In recognition of his accomplished career and dedicated studio art practice, Hayes was awarded a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship.