New Works by Maggie Hall

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Maggie Hall (b. 1984), “Sorry For Your Loss,” 2024

acrylic on canvas, 48x48 in. (courtesy of the gallery)

Sorry for Your Loss is artist Maggie Hall’s latest compelling addition to her acclaimed series of half-tone paintings. These meticulous works present us with women, coiffed and calmly posed in vintage dresses, standing before mid-century homes engulfed in flames. Here, we find our central character at the edge of a calm pool; her demeanor is relaxed, or perhaps dissociated as she watches her world burn before her. Hall crafts her paintings with incredible precision, applying airbrushed dots of cyan, magenta, and yellow paint, which are then overlaid with hand-piped daubs of black acrylic. From afar, the paintings appear almost photographic; up close, they erupt in a fascinating array of visual textures.

This series of works was initially born from Hall’s personal experiences with postpartum rage. Over time, it has evolved to encompass a broader spectrum of the human experience, delving into the many complexities and challenges lived by women. “Sorry for your loss” is a straightforward, innocuous phrase used to comfort those who are grieving; when used to title this painting, it imbues deeper meaning to an already loaded image.

As with previous iterations of the series, Hall has applied her own lived, deeply personal experiences to her work. Sorry for Your Loss, and all of the works in this series, are a labor of love, and viewing the final result makes that incredibly clear. “This body of work is exhausting. It’s repetitive and mundane, but it also reflects daily life. Each dot is a chore, but these monotonous tasks make an image when you step back,” Hall notes, “A life. Each one counts, and without it, the picture would be incomplete.”