Michael Hall was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1952. An expressionist artist who believes that the only absolute is the action of life, he imbues the common and familiar objects in his paintings with a spiritual levity. He lives in Salt Lake City.

Hall studied at the Art Institute of Cincinnati and moved to Salt Lake in 1983. In 1990, he was awarded a Visual Arts fellowship from the Utah Arts Council. He received a National Endowment for Arts fellowship in 1992, the only Utahan to be so recognized.

His works use a layering technique of small images. He combines nonobjective and objective styles with wide color gestures and a tight simplified line. Examples of his work are Dada Pizza Boy (1990), a mixed media painting, and Go To Idiot (1997), an oil pastel. The Phillips Gallery in Salt Lake City represents his work.

Biography Adapted from Artists of Utah.

Michael David Hall studied painting at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. In 1992, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Fellowship Award. Abstractions by Hall can include continuous and highly whimsical streams of mirth. They also convey colorful and recognizable “things.“ This painter thinks of art “as the act of witnessing.“ What he means is Knowledge defines us.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Newspaper Articles

"Arts Council Fellowships Go to Six Artists." The Salt Lake Tribune, November 1, 1992.

"Galleries." The Deseret News, March 1, 1998.

"Galleries." The Deseret News, February 12, 1995.

"Galleries." The Deseret News, April 17, 1994.

"Galleries." The Deseret News, March 28, 1993.

"Galleries." The Deseret News, May 31, 1992.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, January 12, 2003.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, September 29, 2002.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, July 28, 2002.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, May 27, 2001.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, February 27, 2000.

Books

American Federation of Arts. Who's Who in American Art. 21st ed. New York, NY: R.R. Bowker Co., 1993.

American Federation of Arts. Who's Who in American Art. New York, NY: R.R. Bowker, 1986.

Davenport, Ray. Davenport 's Art Reference and Price Guide. Mareline, MI: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2001.

Dunbier, Lonnie P. ed. The Artists Bluebook: Ask Art. Scottsdale, AZ: Ask Art.com., 2003.

Hall, Michael D., E. W. Metcalf, and Roger Cardinal. The Artist Outsider: Creativity and the Boundaries of Culture. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

Hall, Michael David. Michael Hall: Three Installations. Detroit, MI: Institute of Arts, 1977.

Marquis Company. Who's Who in the West. 24th ed. Chicago, Ill: A.N. Marquis Co, 1998.

Marquis Who's Who inc. Marquis Who's Who Directory of Computer Graphics. Chicago, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1984.

Marquis Who's Who inc. Who's Who in American Law. 2nd ed. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1979.

Metcalf, E. W., Michael D. Hall. The Ties That Bind: Folk Art in Contemporary American Culture: November 21, 1986-January 10, 1987, the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati, OH: The Center, 1986.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

Opitz, Glenn B. ed. Dictionary of American Sculptors: "18th Century to the Present," Illustrated With Over 200 Photographs. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1984.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1997.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton and Janie L. Rogers. 150 Year Survey Utah Art & Artists. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2002.

Utah Arts Council, and Southern Utah Sate College. A View of Six: Utah Arts Council's Visual Artist Fellowship Award Recipients. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Arts Council, 1992.