Cosby Hayes
Visual Arts: Mixed Media, Murals, Painting
My work employs recognizable imagery from multiple eras spanning centuries, woven together as a personal narrative. I reference historical imagery from movements and cultures that never encountered one another, yet through them, a common thread is found.
Using architecture and symbolism through a lens that references the aggressive and sometimes audacious nature of graffiti. I explore the need to enshrine one’s existence as it fosters creativity, individualism, and the attempt at immortality.
There is a desire to be noticed or remembered through an idolized infamy, which leads many to vandalize and destroy in the name of one’s altar ego. My work aims to harness this vandalistic mentality in an attempt to explore the innumerable styles and techniques used throughout time to make one’s mark on the world.
I aim to provoke the viewer to search for some resolution within my work when comparing current and past cultural phenomena.
The figures I paint initiate a visual dialogue with regards to Man’s primeval struggle and search for an existence beyond his physical limitations, no matter the cost. A declaration: “I was Here.”
Cosby Hayes
850.933.0651
5430 Lawton Ct. Tallahassee, Florida. 32317
cosbyhayes@gmail.com
Education________________________________________________________
Florida State University: Tallahassee, Florida, May 2014
Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art
Relevant Experience_______________________________________________
iGrow Community Garden: Tallahassee, FL
Artist, April 2014
Collaborated with local residents of Tallahassee’s lower income community to design and paint a mural with children from the surrounding neighborhoods during a spring gardening festival
KCCI 2017 Catalyst Member: Tallahassee, FL
Exhibitions_______________________________________________________
2012 Stuart Riordan Retrospective, TCC Fine Art Gallery, Tallahassee, FL (featured guest artist)
2012 It’s Political, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL (juried exhibition)
2013 25th Art in Gadsden, Gadsden Art Center, Quincy FL (juried exhibition)
2014 BFA Thesis Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
2014 Shift: Emerging Artists from Florida State University, Thomas Dean Fine Art, Atlanta, GA (pop-up group Exhibition)
2015 Views From The Otherside, 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, FL, Solo Exhibition.
2015 Average Joe Group Exhibition, Concrete Beach Brewery, Miami Florida, Currated by Yo-Miami.
2016 5TH Annual Paint Me Miami, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami Florida, Juried Group Exhibition
2016 2ND Biannual Perez Art Museum Miami Staff Art Exhibit, University of Miami Gallery, Miami Florida
2016 [NON] Organico (Mural Exhibition), ‘ACE Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Curated Exhibitions_______________________________________________
2012 Gutter Lords, Renditions Gallery, Tallahassee, FL (collaborative/group Exhibition showcasing local graffiti artists’ shift into the Fine Art World)
2015 Works by Cosby Hayes and Kemeys Goethe at One Spark 2015, Burrito Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
Residency______________________________________________________
2016 Resident Artist at Yo Space Galley and Artist Studio, Miami Florida
2016 Proyecto ‘ACE, Artist in Residence Program, Buenos Aires, Argentina