Skip Hill’s mixed-medium work resonates with a lively, layered energy that bridges cultural symbolism, narrative play, and the artist’s distinct voice of contemporary collage.

At first glance, the piece commands attention with its bold interplay of colors—vibrant reds, sun-washed yellows, lush greens, and rich blacks—arranged in patterns that invite both immediate delight and extended contemplation. The surface is alive with rhythm, its elements arranged like musical notes improvising across a jazz score, echoing the African American cultural traditions of improvisation and storytelling.

Materiality plays a central role. Hill weaves acrylic paint, hand-cut paper collage, ink, and other textures into a surface that feels tactile, layered, and generous. The hand-cut fragments suggest not only a meticulous craft but also an aesthetic of reassembly, where disparate cultural images find new meaning in juxtaposition. This process recalls the tradition of African American quilt-making, where scraps become unified narratives, preserving memory while forging new visual stories.

The forms themselves brim with symbolism: stylized birds, faces, silhouettes, and ornamental motifs coexist in overlapping planes. These forms are not accidental—they speak to identity, history, and the collage of influences that shape Black cultural expression. Birds, recurring in Hill’s work, may signal freedom, transcendence, or communication between realms of experience. Faces, half-revealed or abstracted, remind us of the multiplicity of identity, the many voices within community and self.

Cultural references spill across the surface, linking African motifs, street art, jazz-era vitality, and global design traditions. Hill’s work exists at the crossroads of history and contemporary culture—drawing from the visual legacy of Romare Bearden and the graphic dynamism of Pop Art, while carving out a space uniquely his own. In Hill’s hands, symbols are not static. They shift, overlap, and contradict, creating the same push and pull one experiences in navigating cultural identity.

Thematically, the piece resonates with vitality and resilience. It celebrates the beauty of Black life, its improvisations, humor, and survivals. Yet there is also mystery here—enigmatic gestures, partial images, layered symbols that resist easy decoding. This tension underscores the complexity of cultural memory, reminding viewers that no single image can contain a whole story.

Overall, the artwork achieves a rare balance: it is joyful yet thoughtful, playful yet deeply rooted in cultural history. Hill’s technique of layering media not only enriches the surface but also reinforces the theme of complexity and depth—each layer revealing and concealing, like memory itself. His work calls us to linger, to look again, and to find our own connections within his vibrant visual world.

Skip Hill

‘ARIA’ 2005

60'“h. x 48”w.

Mixed-mediums, acrylics, inks, collage on canvas.