On Friday, Sept. 20, the Rose Art Museum announced via an Instagram post that on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. Hugh Hayden, the artist behind the Rose’s current exhibit “Hugh Hayden: Home Work,” will discuss his work “highlighting his visceral and multilayered sculptures that integrate the ‘American Dream.’” The conversation will be moderated by WBUR reporter Arielle Gray. Tickets are free to all who register for the event through the Rose’s Instagram link tree. 

This event perfectly complements Hayden’s exhibit “Hugh Hayden: Home Work,” which arrived at the Rose on Sept. 18 and is set to stay until June 1, 2025. The exhibit features his transformative and complex sculptures, as well as a new site responsive installation. The unique nature of his work can be attributed to his background and artistic training.

Born and raised in Texas, Hugh originally studied as an architect. However, his creations started to arise from his “deep connection to nature and its organic materials.” His artistic practice “considers the anthropomorphization of the natural work as a visceral lens for exploring the human condition.” He accomplishes this by transforming familiar objects through “a process of selection, carving and juxtaposing to challenge” one’s perception of “ourselves, others and the environment.”

Hayden primarily uses wood as his artistic medium and, as stated in his Lisson Gallery biography, the wood used in his creations often has fascinating histories of its own. The wood Hayden uses often combines “disparate species, creating new composite forms that also reflect their complex cultural backgrounds.” Hayden is known for his sculptures  that are inspired by “regional craft-based furniture and objects.” His work aims to question the static nature of current social dynamics and demands the views to self-examine how they exist in that “ever-shifting ecosystem.” His work evokes everyday aspects of the African American identity and the difference was that “history and stereotypes” continue to pervade American culture today.   

Through his extensive works and unique form of expressive art Hayden has distinguished himself as a “leading artist of his generation.” The arrival of Hayden’s exhibit to the Rose marks his first solo exhibition in New England. “Hugh Hayden: Home Work” is a curated exhibit of over a decade of Hayden’s work. In a statement to the Rose about the exhibit, Hayden expressed, “All of my work is about the American dream, whether it’s a table that’s hard to sit at or a thorny school desk. It’s a dream that is seductive but difficult to inhabit.” In addition, the new installation to the exhibit is split into five different sections that make up “Hugh Hayden: Home Work:” “The Uncanny Home,” “Soul Food,” “Skeletons in the Closet,” “Playing the Field” and finally “Class Distinction.” The exhibit, as stated on the Rose website, aims to expose and confront “the realization that discomfort — and even danger — often lurk within the confines of our most intimate spaces.”