Haroun Hayward

Haroun Hayward (b.1983, London) is a London-based artist who works primarily with acrylic, oils and oil pastels. Hayward’s influences are incredibly diverse that include 90’s dance music, graffiti, Vorticism and the landscapes of Paul Nash, African and South Asian textiles, and even early Mughal miniatures. In his work, we can see an amalgamation of several different and disparate strands of thought converging in one place. Although distinct from each other, these influences are a testament to his diverse life experiences and cultural background. In his work, personal identity, artistic process, and visual language inform and complement each other, embracing both introspection and intersection in artmaking. Created by scratching layers of paint, the threadlike texture emulates the tangible and fibrous quality of textile, which was prevalent in the artist’s childhood home. Together, the threads cohere as rhythmical shapes, reflecting his personal interest in the subtle, repetitive, and hypnotic tempos of various electronic music subcultures. Despite the multiplicity of visual and ideological elements, the work presents in a singular manner, which reflects the pensive compositional decisions that were made to cornerstone the vibrant forms.

Hayward received his MFA (2010) from Goldsmiths University and BA (2006) in Fine Art (Painting) from Brighton University, following an exchange stay at the Nagoya University of Arts in Japan.