Chase Hall: figures growing from coffee, canvas and space
Hall recomposes photographs rather than copying them, using coffee, raw canvas and negative space to hold childhood, community and historical memory.
Photographs are a point of departure
Hall draws from his own film photographs, family albums, postcards and vernacular images. He recomposes fragments rather than copying a single source, leaving figures open to the viewer's own memory.
Figures emerge between details and blanks
A painting may begin with a nose, mouth, knee or elbow rather than a complete outline. Unpainted canvas becomes active negative space from which figures and pareidolic forms emerge.
Coffee as colour, structure and history
Hall began staining drawings with coffee grounds while working at Starbucks as a teenager. Coffee now functions as colour, textured structure and a material carrying histories of labour, race and commerce.
The 2026 works connect childhood and community to method: material carries history, while negative space allows figures to emerge.