* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Jo Hay is a contemporary British American portrait painter whose work focuses on acknowledging human courage characterized by those who dare to stand up and express who they are or what they believe.
Originally from Newcastle Upon-Tyne, England, Hay lives and works in Provincetown MA. She received her BA from Middlesex University, London, UK and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art, NY, NY.
Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Provincetown Arts Magazine, The Boston Globe, Time Out NY, Provincetown Banner, Provincetown Magazine, Bedford Magazine and Art Galleries and Artists of the South.
Hay was the first recipient of the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant 2010 sponsored in part by the Provincetown Art Association and Museum and the recipient of the New York Academy of Art Portrait Scholarship 2011. Her portrait from her Benders series entitled Dodger was a semi-finalist in the BP Portrait Award 2015 at the National Gallery in London.
Jo explains her work by saying, “The overarching theme of my recent portraits is the acknowledgment of human courage through self-expression. Wishing to examine our psychological and biological perception of ‘male’ and ‘female’, the Benders series portrays individuals who do not choose to be labeled either male or female but instead describe themselves as gender fluid—they experience and express an innate sense of both sexes. Since childhood, when I first witnessed the flamboyantly styled androgynous members of UK glam rock bands of the 1970’s and later the drag queens and transsexuals on the streets in 1990’s NYC, I have been captivated and delighted by the visual and emotional confusion that gender duality produces.”
