{"id":13527,"date":"2012-09-30T22:16:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T04:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=13527"},"modified":"2019-08-06T19:45:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T01:45:28","slug":"michael-hall-phillips-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/michael-hall-phillips-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Hall @ Phillips Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nLabyrinths of intersecting lines, weaving through each other and breaking apart, accented by amorphous forms meandering through a canvas that seems weighted to the point of breaking. These are the works of Michael Hall now up at Phillips Gallery. These webs of linear intricacy are extraordinary large canvases with a poppish quality, reminiscent Basquiat, but more focused. Visually, they are nothing short of fascinating, with their density of line and the wealth of \u201csurprises\u201d found in their linear fabric.\u00a0 As visually appealing as these mappings are, to see them only as intricate and pleasurable surfacse, is to rob them of the philisophical essence at their core.<\/p>\n

As he outlines in the exhibition\u2019s artist statement, Hall describes his art-making process as a struggle between, \u201cthe urge to name things, the drive to know, to be objective\u201d and the artist\u2019s own subjective influence on that very process. \u201cThat mass [the canvas] consists of new information that is being provided and also transformed, something that is always taking place.\u00a0 I realized that all of this information was being interpreted and defined by my personal history, my subjectivity, which consists of gathering information,\u201d Hall says.<\/p>\n

Hall has a very clear understanding of the process that is occurring when \u201cthat mass\u201d is in the process of fruition.\u00a0 He states, \u201cI take a point in time.\u00a0 I am existing; thinking, feeling, sensing.\u00a0 At that point I am confronted by a stimulus and as I receive it two things happen instantly.\u00a0 I define or name that stimulus using the person that I am and the stimulus and reaction are added to my person redefining it.\u00a0\u00a0 So my person makes contact with an object, reveals itself by naming the object and is altered by its inclusion, consistently moving on.\u00a0 It all becomes many lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

In essence, Hall\u2019s process is a perpetual cycle that propels the artist to connect and define and to forever be redefined.\u00a0 This artistic process, this mapping of Hall\u2019s subjectivity, is also a fundamental process that informs the totality of the work\u2026 and existence itself.\u00a0 The canvas can be seen as an act of doing, then as a creation in the making to ultimately be governed by an inescapable subjectivity.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s work is but a literal manifestation of what we all experience everyday, every moment in time.\u00a0 Hall\u2019s work, when fully penetrated, might register to some as frightening; forever lost in the labyrinth of this feedback loop the subject can feel helpless, unable to find a place. But Hall\u2019s work is ultimately positivist, as it highlight\u2019s the individual\u2019s role, however uncertain its location may be.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s work, after all, is not the representation of a prison, of a fixed situation. Rather, it describes the trajectory of the individual in a complicated, revolving door world. \u201cAt the point when the image is conceived,\u201d he says, \u201cit is also being left behind, an ingredient of the present but instantly obsolete in its completeness.\u201d This is why he calls his works \u201cstatic illustrations.\u201d The works themselves, however, are anything but static. They burst with liveliness and vitality, filled with a sense of engrossing energy.<\/p>\n

Just as most will not see Hall\u2019s work as static, most will not find life static.\u00a0 We tend to give our lives that quality of a \u201cstatic illustration\u201d when we look back and encapsulate experience in a story, something that explains how we got from point A in our lives to point B. That path, however, is more like Hall\u2019s works, complicated, with challenges unyielding, full of change, variety, growth, but also the pure joy of living. From the appearance of Hall\u2019s canvases, surely his has been and will continue to be a life brimming with a complexity of interests, ineluctable motivation and rich livelihood.<\/p>\n

Salt Lake’s Phillips Gallery<\/a> is currently featuring an exhibit of new works by Michael Hall, paintings by Carolyn Coalson and sculpture by the late Lee Deffebach through October 12. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labyrinths of intersecting lines, weaving through each other and breaking apart, accented by amorphous forms meandering through a canvas that seems weighted to the point of breaking. These are the works of Michael Hall now up at Phillips Gallery. These webs of linear intricacy are extraordinary large canvases […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":13528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[1072,157],"class_list":["post-13527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-michael-hall","tag-phillips-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/831.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 06:54:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13527"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46905,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions\/46905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}