Nicholas Hall: Plus/Minus

Tracey Morgan Gallery is pleased to present Plus/Minus, an exhibition of works from New York-based artist Nicholas Hall. The exhibition will be in the in the project gallery, and will hang alongside an exhibition of works from fellow gallery artist Laura Letinsky. The opening reception will be held on Friday, September 29th, 6-8 p.m, and the artist will be in attendance. This is Hall’s first exhibition with the gallery.
Hall’s work, both captivating and incredibly tactile, intends to activate seemingly customary or even mundane images into one-of-a-kind works that, while 2-Dimensional, feel as much like sculpture as they do photography. With remarkable precision, Hall cuts into imagery from posters, book pages, and calendars, creating another life for the paper in which the viewer can engage with the images in a whole new way.
Each cut and curve works to create a maze of dimensionality, with light and shadow becoming as integral to works as the paper itself. The work is created in response to the way in which digital work has quite literally flattened our spacial relationship with imagery, leading us to casually flip past images that depict otherwise captivating subjects. These works allow the viewer to get lost in the folds and crevices of each piece, almost forcing the viewer to engage.
His works both visually and conceptually deconstruct the subject at hand, whether it be our relationship to landscape, architecture, even to imagery itself. In the first of two groupings, Hall cuts from the backsides of posters, forcing the viewer to fill in the missing details via memory. Can we fill in the blanks when all we see is simply color, scale, and light? Will our memory of space, smell, sound, texture, and taste, help to fill in the blanks of what’s missing? Regardless, these works feel alive, with elements like cut leaves casting a shadow just as real leaves would, with every piece taking on a new life depending on where you stand, what you focus on, even how you tilt your head. The second series explores the history, development, and experience of urban compression and expansion. The artist visually investigates what makes a city so dynamic by considering what makes cities both hospitable and inhospitable. Using rooftop views allows us to see the habitat creating systems, such as HVAC, skylights, elevator shafts and chimneys that allow the city dweller to survive.
Nicholas Hall lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. He received his B.F.A from Pratt Institute in 2002. His work has been exhibited widely in New York including the Rema Hort Mann Foundation. His work is in several public and private collections including TD Bank, Corporate Collection in N.Y.
For visuals or additional information, please contact info@traceymorgangallery.com