Jeanette Hayes

Castor Gallery is pleased to present Paradise??, an exhibition of new works by New York based artist, Jeanette Hayes. This exhibition will be the artist's first solo exhibition with the gallery, featuring 16 original works. Her works will be displayed in the ground level and lower level of the gallery. Jeanette Hayes is both a painter and multimedia artist, incorporating both influences into her pieces. Her work addresses the contrast between high art and pop culture, juxtaposing canonical images from art history with references to modern technology and contemporary figures in media and entertainment. Hayes is best known for her collage-like aesthetic, which freely mixes anime characters with classical artworks. In her most popular series, DeMooning, Hayes superimposes characters from the anime show, Sailor Moon, onto famous paintings by Willem De Kooning. Other paintings feature replications of renowned oil paintings framed by an iPhone lock screen or an Internet window of Safari. Technology features heavily in her art, for, as a young artist, she has been using the Internet since she was a child. To Hayes, the Internet is both her source material and her medium. For this exhibition Hayes once again uses art historical references from the Renaissance period and superimposes them on holographic imagery. Hayes not only utilizes elements from pop culture in her art, but she also embeds herself into the celebrity scene that she finds so fascinating. Her unique approach to both highbrow and lowbrow forms of art yields highly original artworks that reflect on modernity and its effect on the art world.

Marking an evolution of her DeMooning series, Hayes' subject matter focuses on Renaissance paintings, and the juxtaposition of pop culture and mundane objects. Using holograms as the backgrounds of her meticulously painted works, Hayes' addresses the façade of perfection throughout not only the Renaissance period, but also present day. Focusing on themes of sublimity, density, and discomfiture, Paradise?? seems to be a celebration of a canonized artist, however beneath the surface of superior technical skill, evokes feelings of uncertainty, and hesitancy. Toying between paradoxes, the exhibition provides an ulterior view on the age of enlightenment and the fundamental corruption that was often hidden and ignored throughout the time period.

Hayes' work is enhanced by its accessibility; she posts frequently on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, sharing her work with her extensive and ever-growing Internet audience. In addition to her oil paintings, Hayes also creates GIFs, moving images that have been popularized by Internet outlets such as Tumblr, giphy and Twitter. Hayes has shown internationally at XPO Gallery in Paris, Levy Delval in Brussels and Motelsallieri Gallery in Rome. Complex Magazine chose Hayes as an artist to watch, The New York Times featured her in their first "Up Next" column and she been named one of Artnet's 30 Most Exciting Artists in North America Today.