Chase Hall: Halfrican

Chase Hall has developed an expansive vocabulary for documenting the ever-shifting line between personal and generational narratives. His alchemical approach to his materials, which include the coffee-based pigments and cotton supports that have characterized his work of the last few years, both reflects and critiques the ways in which systemic forces of oppression have divided people, territory, and the physical substance of the planet itself. As its title suggests, each painting in Halfrican poses a series of questions about how identities are constituted, often along lines that are not as clear as they might seem. This show includes paintings in a wide variety of scales, from a twenty-four-foot painting—one of the largest and most ambitious works of the artist’s career—to more intimate portraits in the style of yearbook headshots. It finds him exploring stories of freedom and friendship, as well as archetypal cycles of human development. Group portraits of young men wearing overalls and other work gear, for instance, point to the virtues of collaboration as well as an interest in creating revisionist takes on the American mythos. In many of these paintings, Hall delicately traces the line between self-reliance and participation in supportive community. He identifies how systems throughout the human and natural worlds balance competing needs for self-determination and unity, and reflects on ways in which these themes contribute to the ever-unfolding history of the United States.