Dave Hayes is a visual artist based in Dublin. He studied Fine Art Sculpture at the National College of Art and Design, graduating in 1998, and later completed an MFA in Art in the Digital World at NCAD in 2004.

After a long career in the creative industries, he returned to an independent studio practice in 2026.

His current work brings together found and weathered materials, including wood, metal, fabric, rope and everyday objects bearing traces of use. Through simple acts of cutting, binding and joining, he places these materials into new relationships while allowing their existing histories to remain visible.

The idea of finding is central to this practice, both in the use of found objects and in the way the work develops. Often beginning without a fixed outcome, he works responsively, allowing the materials themselves to suggest what comes next. Making becomes a process of discovery through which a visual grammar and a way forward gradually emerge.