Andrew Hayes: Volumes
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Andrew Hayes: Volumes
essay by Wes Stitt
23 Sunnyside Ave. l Mill Valley, CA 94941 l 415.384.8288 l seagergray.com
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Andrew Hayes: Volumes Exhibition Dates: January 31 - March 2, 2014 Reception for the artist: Friday, February 7, 6 to 8pm Essay by Wes Stitt Front Cover: Andrew Hayes, Cast, steel and book pages, 13 x 7 x 3” Back Cover: Andrew Hayes, Furrow, steel and book pages, 10 x 4.5 x 2” Photography Credit: Steve Mann Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 23 Sunnyside Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 art@seagergray.com
All Rights Reserved
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Chock, 2013 altered book, steel 16 x 16 x 3�
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Chock, view 2, 2013 altered book, steel 16 x 16 x 3�
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“Memory changes the sizes of things… the eye never sees any but the smallest things all at once. It flits across the visible like a darter, and the mind is collecting spots of light in an ocean… Close-hand looking loses the thing seen, becomes temporal. To get a good look at something, we back up, we make the thing small. And to remember it?” - Elizabeth King, Attention’s Loop: A Sculptor’s Reverie on the Coexistence of Substance and Spirit Andrew Hayes’s sculptures embody a tactile exploration of scale,
work around the same time as the introduction of paper - a shift
a push-and-pull between the immense and the intimate. His
in subject matter and a move toward greater abstraction, likely
juxtaposition of materials from the tough environs of industry
influenced by his studies and employment with the sculptor Hoss
with those more familiar to the softer world of study, and his use
Haley. Andrew’s earlier work had recreated landscapes, drawn
of forms reminiscent of monuments, architecture, and landscapes
from his youth in the American southwest, in steel at a scale
in objects that can be held in your hand invite a pleasant
slightly larger than a model railroad, rust and paint on scratched
confusion about the indicators of size. Are these pieces destined
and pitted surfaces standing in for the red rocks of the desert,
for public display in the plaza of a federal or corporate building?
fire scale replicating creosote on telephone poles. With the
The fabricated steel and simple geometric design language say
new material came smaller pieces, and a move away from the
yes, but what to make of the book pages? The delicate leaves
visual language of landscape, toward forms more suggestive of
of paper held in suspension between the steel sheets suggest
architecture, monumental modern sculpture, and urban design.
an object intended for shelf or tabletop display, to be examined
Direct representations of mountains, telephone poles, and
closely and reread often as part of a more personal landscape.
antennae were replaced by more abstract references to spiral staircases, cantilevers, archways, and recessed niches.
Of course, any real uncertainty is short-lived. To see these pieces in person is to know immediately that they are small, precious
This new series of work continues and extends that line
things, and to be charmed by their intimate scale and the jeweler-
of exploration, as well as highlighting Andrew’s mastery of
precise care with which Andrew has crafted them. But the
metalwork, his meticulous attention to fine detail, his intuitive
intriguing mix of materials and formal cues about scale remains,
sense for materials - how to manipulate them, how they contrast,
adding to the charm. Adding to the intrigue its the teasing
and what they mean in themselves. The intimate size, delicate
knowledge that while the book pages can be seen and touched
attachment points, and small detail work of the pieces encourage
and clearly identified for what they are, they cannot be opened,
close attention, and the surface textures - cool steel, smoothed
cannot be read.
or scored, warm, feathery paper - and finger-sized notches and valleys practically beg to be touched, and smelled - do they
In this respect, Andrew’s study with altered-book artist Doug
breathe out the oil and wax aromas of ironwork, the mellow
Beube at Penland School of Crafts, the moment when he began
vanilla scent of the library? Meanwhile, the formal elements of
to use books as a sculptural material, continues to resonate in
each composition speak of the heroic, the public, the industrial,
his work. A central feature of Beube’s teaching about altered-
the modern. These are monuments on an approachable,
book sculpture is his emphasis on addressing the book formally,
possessable, lovable scale, cool and stirring, quirky and intriguing,
as an object to be materially transformed rather than a text
tough and bookish all at once.
to be interpreted, and this premise has fit well with Andrew’s own formal concerns: proportion, scale, texture, color, material,
Wes Stitt
attachment. Another significant change took place in Andrew’s
January 2013 7
Bisect, 2014 altered book, steel 17 x 5 x 4� 8
Cast, 2014 paper, steel 13 x 17 x 3� 9
Clivus, 2013 altered book, steel 9 x 22 x 5�
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Clivus, 2013 altered book, steel 9 x 22 x 5�
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Furrow, 2014 altered book, steel 10 x 4.5 x 2�
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Kernel, 2014 altered book, steel 9.5 x 7 x 2�
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Lade, 2014 altered book, steel 8 x 7 x 3.5� 14
Lade,view 2, 2014 (right)
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Lode, 2014 altered book, steel 16 x 7 x 2.5�
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Mantle, 2014 altered book, steel 13 x 6 x 5�
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Moor, 2014 altered book, steel 17 x 10.5 x 2�
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Omer, 2013 altered book, steel 19 x 12 x 2�
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Offset, 2013 altered book, steel 13 x 9 x 5�
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Plat, 2014 altered book, steel 5 x 12 x 4�
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Rack, 2014 altered book, steel 11 x 6 x 6.5�
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Placer, 2013 altered book, steel 10 x 7 x 9�
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Torch, (two views), 2014 altered book, steel 23 x 3 x 3.5�
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Andrew Hayes Education 2007 - 2009 Core Fellowship, Penland NC 2005 - University of South Carolina, National Student Exchange Program 2000 - 2005 Northern Arizona University, bachelors of fine arts candidate
Solo Exhibitions 2014
Volumes, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley
2013
Tributaries: Andrew Hayes, National Ornamental Iron Museum, Memphis, TN Strata: Paper and Steel, Lux Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE
2012
Altered Books, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR Diction, Penland Focus Gallery, Penland, NC
2009
Held, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY
Selected Exhibitions 2013 CONTEXT art miami, Seager Gray Gallery, Miami, FL Spectrum Gala, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN Iron + Carbon: 3 in Steel, Yadkinville Cultural Arts Center, Yadkinville, NC Collectors Choice, Invitational, Green Hill, Space for NC Art, Greensboro, NC This is Contemporary Art, Marta Hewett Gallery, Cincinnati, OH Summer Salon, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville NC Studio Assistant, Hoss Haley, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC ArtMrkt, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, CA The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley Metal Bound, NoMa Gallery, Charlotte, NC Codex International Book Fair, Seager Gray Gallery Materials Mater, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA Artist’s Assistant Kohler Arts/Industry Residency Program, Kohler, WI
2012 Studio Assistantship for Hoss Haley, Haystack Mountain School, Deer Isle, ME SNAG Presenter, Spotlight on Emerging Artists, Scottsdale AZ SNAG Showcase: 2012 Conference Presenters, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Mesa, AZ Emma International Collaboration, Ness Creek, SK Canada Visiting Artist in Sculpture, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 2011 2010
Annual Penland Benefit Auction, Penland, NC BRNHA Residency, part of meet the maker series, UNCA Asheville, NC Little Things Mean Lot, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA The Book as Sculpture, Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek, WI Four Views, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC Iron 2010, (Traveling Exhibition) National Ornamental Iron Museum, Memphis, TN Three Piece Suit, Rebus Works, Raleigh, NC Sitka Annual Benefit Auction, Portland, OR
2009 Book Marks, The Book as an Aesthetic Object, Terminus Gallery Walk, Atlanta, GA Mentor, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC New to the 3rd, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC Hand Crafted, Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount, NC Via Penland, Rebus Works, Raleigh. NC
Publication and Features: 0’ Sullivan, Joanne. “Beyond Words, Andrew Hayes’ Sculpture Deconstructs the Book.” WNC Magazine September/ October issue Print Neal, Dale. “Artist Marries Art and Design for Moog Music. Creates Aluminum Cabinet for Voyager.” Asheville Citizen Times, September 15, 2013 Print Dacheux, Stacy. “Sleek Sculpture Combines Metal with Pressed Book Pages.” Beautiful Decay, August 7 2013 Young, Meghan. “Artist Andrew Hayes Manipulates Metal and Novels.” Trendunter August 9 2013 Walter, Melissa. “Interview #7 – Andrew Hayes” CraftHaus October 8, 2012 Baker, Sara. “Andrew Hayes – Artist.” American Style Issue 74 Winter 2010 - 2011 Print 25
23 Sunnyside Ave. l Mill Valley, CA 94941 l 415.384.8288 l seagergray.com 26