James Hayward

James Hayward is an American abstract painter renowned for his richly textured and colour-layered canvases. Born in 1943, he pursued his studies at San Diego State University before advancing his education at the University of California, Los Angeles. A pivotal figure in the Los Angeles art scene, where he continues to live and work, Hayward persistently challenges the conventional boundaries of painting, delving into the medium's materiality and expressive potential.

Hayward's work first gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s and has been extensively exhibited in both solo and group shows across the United States and internationally. His paintings are held in the permanent collections of notable institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Key exhibitions include solo presentations such as “James Hayward: Paintings” at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1983 and “Thick Paint” at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 1992. His 1998 solo exhibition, “Chromachord,” at Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, marked a significant exploration of his impasto technique and monochromatic approach. Hayward’s contributions were further highlighted in the group exhibition “American Abstraction at the Crossroads” in 2006 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Recent exhibitions of his impasto-centric works include “Variations on the Annunciation” at Meliksetian | Briggs, Los Angeles in 2013, and “James Hayward Paintings from the ’70s” at Richard Telles Fine Art, part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative in 2011.