Ava Hayes is an Irish artist based in Cork City. She graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design’s MA Art & Process Degree with first-class honours in 2023 and has since exhibited across Ireland, the UK, and Europe. Hayes also maintains a national and international curatorial practice, developing projects that extend her research into performance, spatial experience, process-led practices, and contemporary visual culture. Since completing her studies, Hayes has received several significant accolades, including the Sample Studios Graduate Curatorial Residency and the MTU Arts Office Residency. In 2023, she was also awarded the MTU Purchase Prize.

In 2025, Hayes completed an international residency exchange in San Francisco as well as a residency at The Triskel Arts Centre, both undertaken in preparation for her second solo exhibition, Black Gives Way to Blue, with Sample Studios at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion. Based at Sample Studios in Churchfield, Hayes creates performative paintings that explore the limitations of verbal communication and the physical tensions that emerge when language fails.

Ava often works collaboratively with both performance and sound artists to enrich her creative process and broaden the scope of her painting practice.