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September 7, 2006 - October 7, 2006
Everest Hall
Bellwether
134 10th Ave
The show’s title, Axis Mundi, refers to the world’s center, which (depending on one’s representation or belief system) is a spiritual entity connecting heaven and earth. By referencing this universal center Hall also directly alludes to the plumb line: an undeviating vertical string and bob device driven by gravity which artists employ in the studio to keep still life or arrangements in perspective over time. The plumb line ultimately ensures correct verticality, which is a meaningful concept to Hall in both his life and work.
Moving on from his blatant worship of the abject and what Holland Cotter called, “determinedly bottomshelf content”, Hall turns his adroit technical skill to explore several motifs in his new work. For example, the artist has chosen the skin shedding rattlesnake as a symbol of self-renewal. Used as a conduit between heaven and earth, the pure and the profane, Hall uses the snake to question the intent and integrity of reinvention. Skulls depicted in crystal, onyx and amber, also reappear throughout the work as objects that date back to the beginning of man. Juxtaposed next to fabrics of serpentine damasks and geometric repeats, the skulls are at once symbols of history, anthropology, wealth, and status, but also, for Hall, things of great beauty.
By repeating such motifs, Hall induces the viewer into a meditative state. In rendering with meticulous precision elements like a hexagonal pattern, wood grain and luminous skulls the artist attempts to channel a universal energy and express its form through contemporary still life painting.
Everest Hall received his MFA in painting from Yale University. His work was recently exhibited in Los Angeles at Acuna Hanson. His last solo at Bellwether, I am Looking for Someone Lonely Like Me, received critical attention from the press including The New York Times and Flash Art. Hall’s work has been featured in Domino Magazine and Details. Born in 1974, the artist lives and works in New York City.
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