Sharon Hayes

Sharon Hayes is Professor and Chair of Fine Arts at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. An acclaimed artist whose work spans video, performance, sound, and public sculpture, Hayes examines the intersections of history, politics, and speech through a lens that challenges normative behaviors and unjust social contracts.

Her research interests focus on video and performance art, public space theory, LGBTQ+ studies, and feminist theory. Hayes's work seeks to unravel reductive historical narratives and reactivate dormant pathways for imagining political resistance, with particular attention to the grammars through which resistance takes form. She views public space as a site for unregulated, unpredictable encounters and collective possibility.

Hayes's notable works include the Ricerche series, Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) Screeds, and We Knew We Would Go to Jail, which explore group formation, political commitment, and the relationship between personal and political desire. Her artistic practice reveals patterns across historical moments of political struggle, particularly examining how marginalized communities form collectives and sustain political resistance.

Her numerous awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship (2014), Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2013), and most recently the Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Award (2024) and Grants to Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2024).

Hayes has been exhibited at major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and has participated in the Whitney Biennial and Venice Biennale. Her current work Ricerche: Four documents interviews with LGBTQ+ elders across the United States, creating powerful intergenerational testimony about survival, identity, and joy.