DARIUS HILL, recent works. Monty Stabler Galleries, 1811 29th Ave. South, Homewood. Through June 4.

       Darius Hill demonstrates that he is one of the most gifted young artists working in this region.
       His abstractions are powerful and elegant. The forms that evolve in his works are often suggestive of recognizable things but always there is the elusive quality in his work that is chameleon-like. Just when you think you know what the work is about the contents seem to shift and drift, dream-like into new fragments and meanings.
       Hill’s flair for the enigmatic change plays games with the eye. Dramatic explorations create a sometimes puzzling and always exciting surface. It is like trying to catch a goldfish in a bowl of water with one’s hand – a constant reaching for an elusive thing that keeps slipping away while always remaining a tantalizing presence.
With highly refined technical prowess, Hill structures his compositions into something easy to see yet difficult to explain. His capacity for defining spatial relationships enables him to create complex groupings of line and form.
      Several large works are exquisitely bold combinations of geometric and organic volumes with very little color. They are painterly and almost monochromatic. Hill uses line to define edges and separate volumes, providing ample room for individual interpretation.
In “The Diner”, Hill comes close to describing a seated figure enjoying food. The total effect is one of gastronomic delight, even excess. All the senses that come into play in the pleasure of dining are conveyed in various ways, from eyes to soft flesh, the tongue, gullet and stomach.
      Another work entitled “Shaman” looks like an assemblage of small boulders. Gradually, the viewer realizes it is a gathering of ghostly wraiths consisting of skull-like visages with staring eyes and gesturing hands.
      From his “Sketchbook series”, Hill explores elements of “Gothic Forms” in a pair of diptychs. Both deal with strongly contrasting forms where one image is boldly geometric and the other image is amorphously organic in shape. In the first diptych, an image draws upon recollections of carefully soaring Gothic architectural elements while the other shape suggests the fluttering draperies seen on late Gothic sculptures. The second diptych is divided between a large “X” shape and a spindly organic form resembling a spider crab.
Darius Hill is an artist of considerable prowess and great promise. There is a maturity and inventiveness in his work that speaks to the eye in a fresh and unique way.

                                                                            James R. Nelson
                                                                            The Birmingham News

                                                                            Sunday, May 16, 2004