Jodi Hays (b. 1976) is a Nashville-based artist whose work explores the material vocabulary of the American South through reclaimed and repurposed cardboard, textiles, and fabrics that resemble screen doors, old boards, and sign paintings. She is a 2019 Finalist for the Hopper Prize. Her work has been seen most recently in a solo exhibition at Night Gallery, Los Angeles.

Jodi Hays and Michi Meko come together in The Burden of Wait to present a selection of works rooted in their shared focus, the Southern landscape. Hays employs reclaimed cardboard, dyed fabrics, and other quotidian materials to explore the visual lexicon of the American South. She describes her practice as “a southern povera,” calling upon the use of unconventional and humble materials. Hays’ work is further inspired by the material habits of Robert Rauschenberg and the rituals and repetitions of Beverly Buchanan. Through her deliberate use of found material, the artist visualizes the resourceful labor of women in the South as those that make, stack, sew, mend, and fix.