BIO

 Jimeé Katelyn Hayes (She/Her/Hers, b. 2000, Washington, D.C.) is a multidisciplinary artist and art educator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her practice spans ceramics, sculpture, drawing, photography, and video. She works with various materials including white stoneware and reclaimed clay on the throwing wheel, plastalina clay on wire armatures for gesture studies, plaster for casting, traditional darkroom processes, and  Filmora software for video editing. Hayes is best known for her editorial photography which captures nuanced expressions of style, culture, and identity characterized by a refined aesthetic and attention to detail.

Her practice has recently expanded from digital media into three-dimensional forms, reflecting on the drift and demonization of African spirituality and culture. She examines the ways African spiritual and cultural traditions have been misrepresented, distorted, and demonized through Western ideological frameworks and colonial perspectives. Seeking to connect to ancestral practices and confront systematic erasure, she traces the enduring similarities that remain in African American culture today. Her in-progress projects are embarking on these themes through experimental processes bridging personal and cultural histories.

Hayes has presented her work at the Open Studio Day at Moore College of Art and participated in the 2024 Summer Art Educator Residency at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.