The White Room was a group show curated by Sean Morris - the participants were Avi Amesbury, Tony Bond, Somchai Charoen,Alice Couttoupes, Linda Draper, Merran Esson, Danica Furulovic, Vicki Grima, Shaun Hayes, Ingrid, Ruth Ju-Shih Li, Bronwyn Kemp, Chantal Labbe, Machiko Motoi, Cherie Peyton, Natalie Rosin, Simon Reece and Jo Wood. For a particular Artist's CV please contact the Gallery.
The collection of plastic objects that inform Hayes’s sculptures are evocative of certain memories and feelings, capturing these ephemeral moments in time. Hayes contemplates the nature of today’s throwaway society and using seemingly unimportant, everyday objects, humorously highlights the importance of being more conscious of the enduring impact waste has on the environment. Drawing on the aesthetics of traditional ceramic vessels combined with contemporary objects, his adorned vessels echo a blending of past and present, old and new as well as illustrating the material similarities between plastic and ceramics.
Interested in the feelings and memory these throwaway objects evoke, Hayes comically uses trash to build vessels of Western cultural heritage. Our garbage becoming a biographic assemblage of certain value systems. The unimportant plastic bottle, the takeaway container and toothpaste ironically put on a pedestal, vitrified, forever set in stone. Almost sarcastically, the works are critiques of how material value is manufactured. But in the environment, it does not matter, material hierarchy does not exist, and both refuse to break down and return to the earth.
Through methods of repetition, rearranging and joining of cast objects paired with a tonal colour palette, Hayes’s sculptures are reminiscent of fantastical and comical imagery whilst also highlighting the tensions of growing up in conversation with existing in a wasteful, thoughtless consumerist society.
Shaun Hayes is a ceramic artist who investigates the relationship between throwaway objects and their ability to instil a sense of reflection on memory, creating a deeply nostalgic and sometimes humorous representation of time and place.
Hayes received a Bachelor of Arts (Visual), with Honours majoring in Ceramics from the Australian National University School of Art in 2013. He is currently living and producing work in Ngario Country, (Captains Flat) NSW Australia.
Career highlights - Winner of the 2024 Muswellbrook Art prize (ceramics), 2023 - invited to exhibit in 'Temperature' an international ceramic art exchange exhibition in Jingdezhen China as part of the Taoxichuan Autumn Art Fair. 2022 finalist in the Waverley Small Sculpture Prize. Represented Stanley Street Gallery at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks Sydney in September 2018 and 2023 as well as the 2023 Melbourne Design Fair. His trips to Jingdezhen China in 2011, 2013 and 2023.
Shaun Hayes is a ceramic artist whose work serves as both a critique and a celebration of material culture. It challenges us to reevaluate our relationship with objects and the environment, reminding us that ultimately material hierarchy holds no sway. In the end both plastics and ceramics refuse to break down and return to the earth, serving as enduring reminders of our disposable habits. Through repetition, rearrangement, and a tonal colour palette, my sculptures take on a fantastical and comical quality. However, beneath the surface lies a poignant commentary on the tensions of growing up in a society driven by consumption and excess. Micro plastics infiltrate our bodies and ecosystems, leaving an indelible mark on our health and environment.
Hayes received a Bachelor of Arts (Visual), with Honours majoring in Ceramics from the Australian National University School of Art in 2013. He is currently living and producing work in Ngario Country, (Captains Flat) NSW Australia. Most recently he was the winner of the 2024 Muswellbrook Art prize and in October 2023 he was selected for ‘Temperature’ - an international ceramic art exchange exhibition in Jingdezhen China as part of the Taoxichuan Autumn Art Fair.
Education
2013
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) majoring in ceramics
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT
2012
Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in ceramics
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT
Solo exhibitions
2023
Single-Use
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
2021
Trashed
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
2019
I Guess this is Growing Up
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
2015
Guilty Pleasures
Australian National Capital Artists Gallery, Canberra, ACT
Two person exhibitions
2018
Introducing, with Jackson Farley
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
Group exhibitions
2024
Musselbrook Art Prize Exhibition
Musselbrook, NSW
2023
Taoxichuan International Autumn Art Fair
Jingdezhen, China
Temperature — International Ceramics Art Exchange Exhibition
Jingdezhen, China
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Represented by Stanley Street Gallery
Carriageworks, Redfern, NSW
Dust Collectors
Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Tuggeranong, ACT
Melbourne Design Fair, Represented by Stanley Street Gallery
South Warf, VIC
2021
#Group#Show
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
2020
Art in Isolation
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
Waverley Small Sculpture Prize
Waverley, Sydney
Séance - Fade to Black
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
2019
3 Sculptors: 3 Spaces
Strathnairn Woolshed Gallery, Canberra, ACT
2018
Beasties
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
Lifeblood
Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, NSW
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Stanley Street Gallery
Carriageworks, Redfern, NSW
2017
Ceramic Revisions II
May Space, Waterloo, NSW
Form, Surface, Structure: Sculpture
Kerrie Lowe Gallery, Newtown, NSW
Counter Culture
Project Art Space, Wollongong, NSW
The White Room
Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW
2016
Habitual Ritual
Australian National Capital Artists Gallery, ACT
2014
Emerging Contemporaries
Craft and Design Centre Canberra, ACT
EASS Exhibition
Strathnairn Homestead and Gallery, ACT
2013
Graduating Exhibition
ANU School of Art, ACT
Gumbo
ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery, ACT
EASS Exhibition
Watson Arts Centre
2012
Graduating Exhibition
ANU School of Art, ACT
Change of State
The Front, Canberra, ACT
2010
Get Naked
Photo Access Space, ANU School of Art, ACT
2008
Higher School Certificate Body of Work
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery
Awards and achievements
2024
WINNER, Muswellbrook Prize (Ceramics)
Muswellbrook, NSW
2020
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
Woollahra, Sydney
2013
Subscription Award
Art Monthly Australia
Group Exhibition Award
Strathnairn Arts Association
Materials Award
Clay Works Potters Supply
Exhibition Award
Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre
2012
Material Supplies Award
Walkers Ceramic
Group Exhibition Award
Watson Arts Centre
Residencies & Workshops
2023
Toaxichuan International art exchange
Jingdezhen, China
2013
Artist in Residence
Strathnairn Arts Association
2011
Pottery Workshop
Jingdezhen, China
Collections
Work acquired by Woollahra Municipal Council, December 2021
Reviews and publicity
Art Guide Australia, September/ October issue 2023
Art Almanac, October issue 2021
Artist Profile Magazine issue 41, Discovery, November 2017
BMA magazine Canberra, Artist Profile, November 2016
A. Harding, Aust View, Artist Profile, 25 February 2015
S. Pryor, Canberra’s Arts Diary, Canberra Times, 28 February 2015
S. Pryor, Capital Life: July 12, the Sydney Morning Herald, 9 July 2014
Web reviews
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6249459/three-sculptors-on-space-and-reality/ The Canberra Times review by Sasha Grishin, July 1st 2019
https://stephenrrandall.wordpress.com/tag/shaun-hayes/ ANCA Gallery review by Stephen Randall, March 1st, 2015
http://anca.net.au/portfolio/guilty-pleasures/ Guilty Pleasures, ANCA Gallery, 25th February- 15h March 2015
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6071384/capital-life-february-28/ The Canberra Times review by Sally Pryor, February 26th, 2015
https://www.musingaboutmud.com/2013/08/25/emerging-artist-shaun-hayes/ Musing About Mud by Carole Epp, August 25th 2013
Group Exhibition
The White Room
March 1-26, 2017