Frederick Hayes was born and raised in Atlanta. His exhibition of small portraits, Build an Empire, is on view through December at Number 35, a gallery in NYC. The gallery describes his work as "an exploration of a turbulent humanness that underlies themes of urban existence and the circumstance of being human and alive in an unpredictable world." Not to be unkind, but this verbiage seems overly high-falutin for such fresh and immediate paintings. A talent to watch.

"Urban Grid, Riffs on the Grid" (2009)

"Urban Grid, Riffs on the Grid" (2009)