Kirk Hayes: Launched To Sink

Kirk Hayes's oil-on-signboard paintings present themselves as collages of torn paper and cardboard on plywood or metal supports, and the trompe l'oeil effects are so convincing that many viewers leave his exhibitions assuming that that is just what they have seen. The often humorous tableaux are populated by characters that obey the rules of modernist assemblage; we easily read their roughly "torn" components as arms, legs, bodies and heads. Hayes favors matte, dry colors, and he makes great use of pink, foamy green and gunmetal blue. Each false tattered edge, painted shadow, smudged scrap of paper and rusted piece of sheet metal is a visual delight. - Charles Dee Mitchell

Kirk Hayes (b. 1958, Fort Worth, TX) lives and works in Fort Worth, TX. His work has been featured in exhibitions at Greenberg Van Doren Fine Art, New York; the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Arthouse, Austin; and Conduit Gallery, Dallas. His work has been discussed in Art in America, the Dallas Morning News, and the Fort Worth Star Telegram, among others.

Launched to Sink is the artist's New York solo debut.