A Dialogue with Darren Hall

Welcome to DIALOGUES. Today, we step into the deeply personal and honest world of Darren Hall. Moving between raw emotions and bright, intense colors, Darren uses his art to heal and find light after a lifetime of trauma and severe brain injury. This is a warm, deeply human conversation about giving a second life to old vintage doors, finding a sense of calm within the chaos of the mind, and the beautiful freedom of showing art completely frame-free on the digital screen.

Contemporary artist Darren Hall painting a colorful textured landscape in his art studio – VIVID Art Gallery Dialogues

On the Surface as a Portal:

In VOLUME III, you created a series of monumental works using reclaimed vintage doors as your canvas (such as “18”, “Emotions”, and “Daily Work”). What drew you to use physical, weathered doors? Does the history of the object itself help you unlock the subconscious narratives and graffiti-style texts you scratch into them?

I guess I see lots of damage, broken and unkept in me. The doors allowed a larger expression and rather than waste them, use them. Gary Lineker had an old door leaning against a wall in his office I saw during a podcast years ago. It inspired me to use them as well. If I had the space I would paint much larger expression paintings showing my inner turmoil and hatred of life at times, loss and utter bitterness towards  it. I see a lot of me in waste that I would paint on as emotional fight back against such constant negativity.

On Psychological Rawness:

Your art acts as a visceral outpouring of psychological states, with text like “PRISON”, “ANGER”, “STIGMA”, and “BLACK DOG” cutting through the bright colors in pieces like “Baby Steps”. How does it feel to put such vulnerable, heavy mental landscapes onto paper and board for the global public to see?

My life is very much not the normal every day one. Being a prisoner in my own space and needing release was a need I still find today. I love me and my own space but over my lifetime I have found I need people but cast them off when not required. There is a rage in me and what has happened and to express darkness against colour is me. One minute in such a dark place then out of it back into life’s beauty. The darker views & places I go td are part of me and will never leave me until my last breath. I get release in emotions and emotional in my rage but in an angry way. I never found/find time to cry, just frustration and quiet away moments. There is a place I visit in my head, my space that is where I zone out. It is conflict with and beside brain damage.
I feel people are judging me constantly, a commotion and view that would get me on n trouble. I tried to be so different to fight this and who I wanted to be. Through specialist therapy I see the world differently and myself. My art is changing and maybe I need to see what I produce now. 
My life was not great when I painted them either. A vulnerable man/adult who felt like that broken child again. Where I hate to be, but where a lot of my persona is child. I feel I never moved on from child and it haunts my mind what happened, thus i act on it.

On the Neo-Expressionist Chaos:

Works like “Junk Food” and “Homage” are beautifully chaotic collages exploring pop culture, consumerism, and art history. How do you balance strict control over your compositions with the intuitive, frantic risk that neo-expressionism demands?

Risk is an emotion and joy that has been in my life. I go to my easel, etc. with a plan for real chaos, it can be but often it never does. Art is my calm. I always have chaos ready to start or continue my journey with it when required.
Artists that express themselves in often child like but adult painting intrigue me. People paint like children but that is because they are not artists in my eyes. Most artists like Basquiat can paint and draw detailed adult material but then find that inner child to tell their story. I think they found something from their younger life that takes them back and I am  the same. Abuse, aggression, submission, hate, anger, rage, calm on my own and in my own space or headspace….so many things I need release from.

On the Contrast of the Clean Background:

Vivid Gallery presents your NEON REBELLION completely frame-free against a clean digital background. Do you feel this stripping away of gallery frames amplifies the rebellious, street-art nature of works like “Just Bee” and Earn It”, or does it leave them feeling beautifully exposed?

Leaving my artwork as scruffy and with rough edges is myself. Sometimes I paint the edge of a canvas and who knows why? Compulsion to act on something is a view I am understanding after my life of trauma and abuse.
 
On the Viewer’s Introspection: Your painting “Brian Damage” features a powerful, haunting skull against a fiery background, representing mental fragmentation. When a viewer stops to look at this intense imagery, what kind of inner dialogue or reaction do you hope to trigger within their own mind?
 
Neurodiversity has many forms and mine are complex. My body and my brain are at one when arting. The mind can damage every part of my day and the days of diagnosis were dark and full of anger. Death played a huge part back then and knowing I will develop dementia to add to my (c)PTSD was where my painting wanted to express with fear. People should know the darkness and effects from mental health and severe brain injuries.
Connect with: Darren Hall
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