Cameron Hayes

Cameron Kingsley Hayes (born 1969), known as Cameron Hayes, is an Australian artist specialising in large scale allegorical oil paintings in a figurative style. His paintings have been selected for numerous prestigious Australian art prizes including The Blake Prize, Moet and Chandon Fellowship and the Sir John Sulman Art Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Early life and education Cameron Hayes was born in Sydney in 1969. His family relocated to Melbourne where he attended St Kevin's College in Toorak. When his father was jailed, he remained at the school on scholarship. He attended RMIT University (Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts) in Melbourne, Australia.

A major work painted 2009-2011 uses the 2007 Australian federal election as its backdrop. Some members of the Australian Liberal Party conducted a pamphlet drop within the marginal seat of Lindsay - a predominantly white, working class community. They falsified an organisation called the Islamic Australia Federation and in the pamphlets thanked the opposing Australian Labor party for seeking clemency for terrorists, for building mosques in Lindsay electorate, and for supporting the Bali bomber terrorists. The painting 'What happens when pretend politicians pretend to be terrorists' tells the story of the public fallout of the fraudulent fear campaign had on Muslim girls at the local school, and upon the Australian psyche. This event is referred to as the Lindsay pamphlet scandal.

Cameron Hayes’ first major solo exhibition was held in 2000 in Melbourne, Australia, of which Australian author and previous editor of Art Monthly Australasia Peter Timms wrote in The Age Newspaper: "His mind is on social history, which he satirizes with a vengeance. Hayes Is a Hogarth or a Daumier for the 21st century. At the level of style and technique his painting is all control…The eye scans the surface, taking in each bizarre anecdote, and taking delight in their bitter humour."

Awards

2015 Finalist, Sir John Sulman Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2014 Finalist, Sir John Sulman Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2005 Winner, The Footy Show, The Artist's Garden, Fitzroy, Melbourne 2001 Finalist, Blake Prize for Religious Art, Australia 1998 Finalist, Blake Prize for Religious Art, Australia 1998 Finalist, Sir John Sulman Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1996 Finalist, Moët and Chandon Fellowship, Australia 1995 Finalist, Sir John Sulman Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1995 Finalist, Blake Prize for Religious Art, Australia 1994 Finalist, Blake Prize for Religious Art, Australia 1994 Finalist, Moët and Chandon Fellowship, Australia 1993 Finalist, Joan Baird Prize, Steps Gallery, Melbourne, Australia 1993 Finalist, Hugh Ramsay Religious Art Award, Clydebank, Melbourne, Australia 1993 Finalist, Allied Union Art Prize, Steps Gallery, Melbourne, Australia