Georgia Hayes‘ wonderful paintings bring to mind the work of Philip Guston and Alex Katz, her graphic compositions full of energetic colour and simplified graphic images of animals, museums and opera singers. Folk artists, or rather outsider art has always held a fascination for me, it’s unfettered, has no time for formality, rules and Hayes work is a prime example of this style.
There is a sense of wonder about her work, a joy of life, an aesthetic that derives its inspiration from the naive, the spontaneous, the untrained. The Art critic Barry Schwabsky has this to say about her work:
Things on display in Hayes’s museums seem as alive and lively as the people, and the people are as detached as the things.
I wish I could be in London to see her new show, ‘Singing Out Loud’, at the Transition Gallery. Here’s what they have to say about her work:
Animals, museum objects and opera singers take centre stage in equal measure in Hayes’s paintings. Indeed, they may be in the space together, calling into question the order of things and pointing us to the thresholds that symbolically mark not only the boundaries of a society but its values and beliefs as well. A fresh sense of wonder, like that which inspired the very first museums, permeates Hayes’s vision. Whether observed from life or imaginatively invented, we are able to recognise ourselves as subjects of what we are doing and thinking, or indeed singing, out loud.
You can see Georgia Hayes’ new show ‘Sing Out Loud’ from 12th January – 3rd February, 2013 at the Transition Gallery, Unit 25a Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London