Tyler Hays: The Art of Making Everything

Tyler Hays is an American artist whose practice seamlessly bridges the realms of fine art, craftsmanship, and design. This exhibition, a deeply personal exploration of form, material, and narrative, highlights Hays’ distinctive ability to challenge and redefine the boundaries between the functional and the artistic.

Selected works 

Known for his celebrated work as the founder of Bddw, a furniture design studio that has garnered international acclaim for its meticulous craftsmanship, Hays brings a similar rigor and passion to his fine art. His work is a testament to his philosophy that art should be lived with, interacted with, and experienced as part of the rhythms of everyday life.

In this solo exhibition, Hays presents a new body of work that demonstrates a harmony between materials like wood, metal, and stone—elements that reflect both natural beauty and the human touch. His intricate pieces, from paintings to sculptural forms, invite the viewer to engage with the tension between utility and aesthetic, craftsmanship and expression.

Hays draws inspiration from a wide spectrum of influences: from the rugged landscapes of the American Midwest to the elegance of minimalist design, and from the warm imperfections of folk art to the precision of modern craftsmanship. His practice echoes these traditions while simultaneously defying them, creating pieces that are at once familiar and entirely new.

The work on display at JO-HS is both an exploration of the artist’s personal journey and a larger commentary on the intersection of art and the built environment. These pieces ask questions about the objects we surround ourselves with, encouraging viewers to consider how aesthetics and utility shape our daily lives.

This exhibition invites viewers to experience Hays’ vision firsthand, where every object—whether sculptural or utilitarian—becomes an intimate dialogue between the artist, the material, and the observer.
Tyler Hays (b. 1968) is an American artist, born and raised in Northeastern Oregon. Throughout his life, he has worked creatively and professionally in a wide array of mediums with a through line focus on material science and engineering––from painting, food, music, furniture to ceramics, metalwork, fashion, and architecture. For Hays, much of art is the alchemy of finding connections, "the harder you look, the more similar everything becomes, and the more difficult it is to know where the line ends."Hays grew up with a strong desire to make everything in his universe from scratch and this foundational impulse started in sewing and cooking to taking apart his toys and followed him to art school where he mixed his own paints and made his paint brushes with hand-punched silver ferrules. His interests and influences are surprisingly expansive yet always centered around the same soup-to-nuts compulsion and a fetish for research into the deconstruction of objects down to their basic elements. 

Installation views

While painting continues to be his primary and most consistent medium, Hays has become best known as the creative force behind the enigmatic company BDDW, which has maintained showrooms in New York, London, Milan and Los Angeles. BDDW continues to be the exclusive retailer and auction house for his furniture, art, and other objects. Tyler lives and works between Philadelphia, New York, and Oregon.

For catalogue and artist’s CV contact info@jo-hs.com