Artist Biography

Donté K. Hayes graduated summa cum laude from Kennesaw State University at Kennesaw, Georgia with a BFA in Ceramics and Printmaking with an art history minor. Donté received his MA and MFA with honors from the University of Iowa and is the 2017 recipient of the University of Iowa Arts Fellowship. Recent art exhibitions include groups shows at the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, New Jersey, Trout Museum of Art, Appleton, Wisconsin and the 2021 Atlanta Biennial at the Atlanta Contemporary in Georgia. His artwork has been presented at the 1-54 art fair, London, England, Design Miami, Florida, and a solo presentation at the 2021 Armory Show art fair in New York City. Hayes work is included in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane, New Orleans, Louisiana, The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas, the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, New Jersey, the Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, New York, the Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, and the Institute Museum of Ghana, Accra, Ghana among others. Donté was awarded a prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant Award in 2022. He is also a 2019 Ceramics Monthly Magazine Emerging Artists and Artaxis Fellow. Hayes has been in residence at MacDowell, Peterborough, New Hampshire, Bemis Center, Omaha, Nebraska, Township 10, Marshall, North Carolina, Penland School of Craft, Penland, North Carolina, Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Georgia, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, Maine. He is the Grand Prize winner of the “Coined in the South: 2022” exhibition at the Mint Museum. Donté is the 2019 winner of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern art from the Gibbes Museum of Art. Donté K. Hayes is represented by Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, Florida.