Hugh Hayden: Boogey Men

In his innovative work across mediums, Hugh Hayden (b. 1983, Dallas) creates anthropomorphic forms that explore our relationship with the natural world. Formally trained as an architect, Hayden deploys laborious processes—selecting, carving, fabricating—resulting in dynamic, surreal, and critical responses to personal experience and social and cultural issues.

Renowned for his use of wood—taking disparate species and manipulating them to reveal complex histories and meanings—Hayden crafts intricate metaphors and meditations on experience and memory that question social dynamics and the ever-shifting ecosystem. This publication charts the artist’s development up to “Boogey Men,” his major 2021–22 exhibition at ICA Miami.