Ruby Friday | Sculptor Stephen Hayes

Award-winning sculptor Stephen Hayes will talk about his journey as an artist and his exhibit Cash Crop-a set of 15 life-sized concrete figures, bound and shackled, that represent the 15 million African lives consumed by the Atlantic slave trade. Originally his MFA thesis exhibition at Savannah College of Art and Design, Cash Crop continues to tour, with Hayes adding new elements at each stop.

Born and raised in Durham, Hayes is currently the Brock Family Visiting Instructor in Studio Arts in Duke's Art, Art History, and Visual Studies Department. Stephen Hayes: Selected Works-an exhibit of his wall reliefs, mixed media sculpture and woodcuts-was on display in the Ruby at the beginning of the fall semester. A new version of his ongoing project, Voices of Future Past, will be on exhibit at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh in the spring of 2019.