Stev'nn Hall

Over Water + zoom

Sunburst + zoom

The Search + zoom

Winter Tree + zoom

Artists Statement/Bio

The artwork of Stev'nn Hall is limned with the light and memory of half-forgotten days and places. Scenes scarred by the neglect of time yet still valuable, as essential as the memory of innocence to our older selves. Hall grew up in rural Ontario "with a 35mm camera in one hand and a paintbrush in the other". After studying Film Production at Concordia University in Montreal and then working as an award-winning television producer, Hall began thinking about something from his past and decided to follow it back - to travel that road again but in a different direction. That is the origin of his photographic work.

These are places seen by a boy riding backseat in the car, his eyes still half in love with sky. You pass them by - farm fields and overpasses and front yards full of yesterday's plans - and yet they have a way of staying whole in your head. The photographs themselves seem a bit spellbound. There is a purposeful feeling of motion in the work, a cinematic unspooling of awareness.

He roughs up the work with sharp brushstrokes and personal scratchings which connect the images to more private associations. They're bled through with the ambient light of 1970s cheap camera photography, all that crackling at the edges as if the pictures were stained by whiskey. Through his photographs, Hall reworks his idea of the past into his present. Through looking back Hall finds his way forward.

-Barry Dumka
(previous owner and director of Spin Gallery and currently director of Gather Consulting, Vancouver, BC).

More Info

In July 2011, Stev'n''s solo show at Muse Gallery was reviewed R.M. Vaugh in The Globe and Mail.

Stev'nn has been showcased on the (artist) reality TV series, "Star Portraits" painting the portrait of the Blue Rodeo singer Jim Cuddy. Stev'nn work was selected as the celebrity favorite.

His works can be found hanging in the foyer of the Ritz Carlton (downtown Toronto) and in the lobby of the Fallsview Casino (Niagara Falls).

He has been featured on Bravo! News, and in Where.ca magazine.

His mixed-medium landscape, "New York State of Mind", was used as the cover art for online pop culture magazine, CONTRA.

Stev'nn was director of the non-profit filmmaker group, Spark in Vancouver for 2 years.

He directed music videos, and produced award winning short films and television commercials.