Colour
A luminous energy that makes difficult subjects accessible without reducing their force.
Biography and practice
The artist
From Havana to Lausanne: twenty years building a language that asks no permission to take up space.
Biography
From Havana to Lausanne
Her experience in interior design projects taught her to work with a wide range of materials. This knowledge informs a practice in which collage, painting, volume and objects combine within a single work.
Her travels and personal history feed a colourful, critical and hopeful language. Themes include pollution, women’s rights, peace, racism, environmental protection and the use of technology.
In 2022 she opened FRESA y CHOCOLATE in Vevey: a gallery, studio, cultural space and meeting place for the arts.
HavanaSitgesLausanneVevey
Statement
“Art is love. Love is indefinable.”
Material is never merely decorative: it carries the message. Elements are selected according to the subject, assembled and worked through their drying times and reactions.
The aim is to create an immediately accessible image and then open a longer reflection — through the eye, the mind and the heart.
Explore artworksA practice in three movements
Draw in · reveal · connect
Colour opens the door. Material slows the gaze. The subject creates a relationship beyond the image.
Material
A tactile memory rooted in collage, objects and a practical knowledge of materials.
Conscience
Works that invite another look at women, the planet, peace and our use of technology.
Exhibitions and milestones
Selected history
201821 Views to the World in 1m × 1mPalais des Nations, GenevaExternally verified
201921st Contemporary Art FairArt International, ZürichDocumented archive
2020Art CapitalGrand Palais, ParisDocumented archive
2020WomenartAmore, SitgesDocumented archive
2021Barcelona ContemporaryBarcelonaDocumented archive
2021Exhibition at Les CubesQuartier du Flon, LausanneDocumented archive
2022Biennale Arte 2022 — participation listed in artist archiveVeniceVerification pending
2022FRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery opensVeveyDocumented archive
2023Blancpain Ladybird presentation and collection previewFRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery, VeveyDocumented archive
2024Women’s SocietyMansión Castillo, HavanaDocumented archive
2024Horizons — Contemporary art from Africa and the DiasporaFRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery, VeveyDocumented archive
2024Artists United for WaterFRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery, VeveyDocumented archive
2025Reflection MirrorsFRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery, VeveyDocumented archive
International press
”I have always been worried about the future of the earth. I use my paintings to express my worries and what I consider unfair in the world.”
Dayamí Hayek, quoted in Aesthetica Magazine (May 2021).
Read the article
Verified biography
Havana · Sitges · Lausanne
Dayamí Hayek was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1973. After studying at the University of Havana, she moved to Spain and lived in Sitges for fifteen years. Her work in interiors and renovation introduced her to a wide range of materials that later became central to her practice. Based in Lausanne, she creates colourful, critical and hopeful works addressing the environment, women’s rights, peace, racism and technology.
Biography consolidated from the artist’s current official website, FRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery and published press sources.