Darius Hill is an alumni and visual arts chairman at ASFA, and has exhibited throughout the region. The award-winning artist received a degree in printmaking from Atlanta College of Art, and his works are part of museum, corporate and private collections throughout the United States.

Darius Hill never set out to make work about identity issues. “I grew up in the Western tradition,” he explains, “so I was influenced by impressionism, post-impressionism, and abstract expressionism at first.” He describes the work as gothic, but in reference to the architectural style rather than the post-punk stylings. “It was really fascinating,” Hill continues.

“I was studying at the Atlanta College of Art at a very interesting time, when both Kara Walker and Radcliffe Bailey were there. But I wasn’t making work about my African-American identity, I was simply exploring a sort of masculine abstraction through a series of paintings, etchings and drawings.”

Hill’s perspectives on exploring these issues changed almost a decade ago. “I was really influenced by rap music, especially artists who expressed a social consciousness,” Hill remarks. “My uncle was Lester Cobb, who was a student leader during the Civil Rights movement. He went on to be a really respected jazz drummer,” Hill continues, “but when I was younger I didn’t really realize the significance of the stories he was telling me. As I got older, particularly after he passed,” Hill pauses, “I wished I had spent more time listening and learning. What I did know then, though, was that there were ways I could explore my history, my interests and my present thinking through my work.”

What emerged was the first piece to include Hill’s use of an afro comb. “The afro comb is an amazing object,” Hill laughs. “When I was younger I worked my way through every hairstyle, from the afro to the high-top fade to my dreads. When I was thinking about an afro comb, I began to realize that not only was it a really utilitarian object, but it also had qualities that other people put on it. It was a comb, a pick, but some people also thought of it as a weapon. I wanted toimagine everything it could be at the same time that I thought about everything it meant to me.”The comb became a recurring theme in many of Hill’s works, transforming from an early print to an icon in numerous paintings to its most recent manifestation as an eight–foot tall painted wooden object. “I got interested in the possibilities of working with wooden sculptures simply because I’ve often had to make all my and my wife Bethanne’s frames,” Hill smiles. “I started constructing these large-scale afro comb armatures, and I realized that these oversized objects were really embodying a lot of the ideas I’d been exploring in my works. After appropriating icons from the canon of traditionally older, white male artists—basically the artists I studied in school—I realized that I could continue to explore my loves for painting and printmaking at the same time that I was also starting to make three-dimensional sculpture. What was most important to me was not to be categorized. To me it wasn’t important what the medium was, it was simply important for me to capture the meaning.”

Reprinted from B Metro magazine by Brett Levine; Photo by Barry Altmark.