The Artist Chase Hall Wrestles With ‘Hybridity’

This article is part of the Fine Arts & Exhibits special section on the art world stretching boundaries with new artists, new audiences and new technology.

It isn’t hard to get Chase Hall talking. Having grown up with a mother in and out of rehab and a father in and out of jail; attended eight schools before the age of 16; and achieved an enviable degree of fame for an untrained 31-year-old artist, Hall has a lot to say.

He is generally expressing himself through his paintings, several of which will be on view in his solo show at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, which opens Nov. 8 and runs through Dec. 14.

But in a recent lengthy conversation at his studio in upstate New York, Hall also posed some of the complex questions that clearly — and consistently — consume him.

“How do things that define you, but don’t end you, actually make you better instead of paralyze you?”

“What does rap music teach you? What do Blaxploitation films teach you? What do you see when you live in low income? And then what do you see when you’re in high income?”

“Who’s talking about what it’s like to be Black and white at the same time?”