STATEMENT
Sol Hill intentionally subverts the visual photographic record with artifacts that are endemic to digital imaging in order to reveal energies we normally do not see. He became interested in working this way while doing his MFA in photographic arts because he noticed everyone involved in the world of photography despised “digital noise.” He thought it would be wonderful to do something so compelling with these endemic but reviled artifacts that people would have to enjoy them, mostly to prove the point that nothing is inherently worthless or ugly… it just depends on how you look at it and where you put value.

Sol calls his work Metagraphs because the artifacts he works with are records of much more energy than just visible light. They are products of endemic camera system noise well as of “cosmic noise”, the wavelength energy signatures that emanate from the cosmos, our sun, our planet, our built environment and communication technology as well as our physical bodies. The image, thus, is transformed into a kind of hyper-vision both metaphorically and literally revealing more than we can see.

Sol prints his Metagraphs on Japanese paper, then applies them onto prepared painter’s substrates. He develops surface texture and gesture in acrylic to accentuate the ambiguity of the medium. His aim is to stimulate wonder both about the image, his process, his medium and their collective interpretation.

BIOGRAPHY
Sol Hill was born in Albuquerque, NM, one day after his parents opened the first contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe. The mysterious objects that pervaded his childhood intrigued him. Seeing those artworks felt like a secret alchemical language young Sol wanted to learn. Sol grew up in nine states across the United States, Jamaica, and Germany. He married a Brazilian and has traveled extensively to Brazil. His parents belong to different classes, one wealthy and one not. Belonging was always a challenge, but this broad perspective on places and people steeped deeply into Sol's perspective and fuels his artistic point of view. Although he majored in International Relations, Sol returned to the arts after an intense medical crisis. He earned an MFA in photographic art at Brooks Institute and has worked full-time as an artist since 2010. He is still seeking to decipher that alchemical language or, at least, to invent his own.

Sol forces camera sensors to record the energetic fingerprint of our universe and renders the data into a visual language that expresses his wonder at reality's immaterial nature. He aims to create work that explores the space where art, science, and spirituality intersect.

Sol divides his artistic practice between working with contemporary digital imaging technology to create what he calls Metagraphs, which present visible artifacts hinting at the energetic nature of the universe we inhabit, and using art as a form of activism through creating hard-hitting social justice art projects and installations with a strong presence.