[3] He has exhibited at historically significant galleries such as Claire S. Copley Gallery, Riko Mizuno Gallery and Rosamund Felsen Gallery and Roberts Projects in Los Angeles and Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and his work has been included in museum exhibitions in institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Hirschorn Museum, Washington D.C., The Renaissance Society At The University Of Chicago, and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, U.K. among others.
[3] Artist Mike Kelley curated a solo exhibition of his work in 2005 at the Cue Art Foundation in New York calling Hayward "one of the few truly important West Coast Painters.
"[4] Also in 2005, critic and educator Dave Hickey included his work in a curated show entitled Step into Liquid, at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles.
[5] Recently Hayward's work has been included in "Under the Big Black Sun" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, curated by Paul Schimmel in 2011,[6] a solo exhibition at Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles James Hayward Paintings from the 70's in conjunction with the Getty's Pacific Standard Time exhibition in 2011[7] and his Annunciation paintings have been shown in the solo exhibition Variations on the Annunciation at Meliksetian | Briggs in Los Angeles in 2013.
[9] Writing in The Huffington Post, Gordy Grundy calls it "a chronicle of a ribald life in the arts as well as a glimpse of SoCal living".