Adam Hayes: Of the triumph it hosted

February 12 – March 20, 2011

numberthirtyfive gallery is pleased to present new drawings and an installation by Newark-based artist Adam Hayes. This is his second solo exhibition with the gallery.

There are instances where, without intention on the part of the viewer, one is struck by such a moment, a view, a glance upon an object that it will inspire a sense of awe, a slack-jawed glimpse into what many writers and philosophers call “the sublime.” This is where Hayes begins his work. 

Drawing from such unlikely sources as high fashion photography and Las Vegas casinos, Hayes creates works on paper that seem to be illuminated from within, with imagery that evokes classical architecture and high-renaissance drapery. Hayes draws a moment: a wisp of hair on a neck, a beam of light bouncing off a Corinthian column, the shadow of a sculpture in a grand hall. 

Hayes’s installations are more directly related to architecture. They not only involve direct references to  Las Vegas casinos and palaces, both real and imagined, but they involve actual constructs that light the painted surfaces and help create areas for the installation to exist. In the installation for the exhibition, Hayes created a structure that is supported by a pieced together construction that looks less temporary than it was intended to be, as if a second breath to land on it will collapse it entirely. The light fixture has the same “rikki-tikki” feel to it. It is held together by clothespins, binder clips and Scotch tape.

Holding true to his sources, or as a deeper critique of the concept, he willingly reveals this grandeur to be simply a flimsy promise, a notion that lies just out of our grasp that if we were to attain it would dissolve in our hands. The drawings also hint of something concrete and extravagant but deliver nothing but a thin veil.