Uncharted Territory 11, 15” x 20”

Brian Hallas is a New Jersey-based abstract/surrealist digital photographer who constructs stratified worlds that are painterly and hallucinogenic. Hallas began his exploration of photography in 2020 during the onset of the Covid pandemic. He adopted the medium after a career in theater and sound design as a need to create a singular art. Traces of his experience in sound design can be seen in his inclinations toward layering and distortion. His images provide tactile experiences that serve as a response to modern life.

Although he has experimented with many cameras, Hallas’s iPhone is his weapon of choice. He enjoys the convenience of shooting and editing on one device. Inspired by his surroundings, Hallas constructs realms of intense hues and blends the natural with the mechanical. Flowers are overlayed onto grand cathedrals and rollercoasters, and humans become lost in an array of color and texture. Taking inspiration from many creative worlds, Hallas has always cited the folk artist Grandma Moses as his artistic icon. 

Hallas has consistently participated in exhibitions since 2019. His works have been shown in museums and galleries in New York City, California, Dallas, Kyiv, Western Australia, and throughout New Jersey. His photos hang in several private collections in the US and have been featured in a number of online magazines. He was part of Alfa Art Gallery’s 2023 NBAS Photography Exhibition “Refracted: Shade and Light”, where he placed 3rd in the juried exhibition. He has received several awards at numerous galleries since 2023, including Special Merit at the Light Space Time Gallery, the Distinction Award at Gallery 4%, and two Bronze awards from the J. Mane Gallery in 2024. 

For Hallas, the environment provides the material that he transforms into an immersive world. Through disorienting color and collage techniques, he synthesizes familiar landscapes into dreamscapes of survival. His captures explore the relationship between the eye and technology, while opposing the tradition of photography as a medium for objective truth. Overall, Hallas provides an escape through immersion in a psychedelic, yet familiar sublime.

Artist Statement

“Like many (if not most) artists, my primary goal is to entertain myself first. When others appreciate the images that I create, it takes the experience to another plane entirely. In my latest work, I’ve been focusing on the plants and flowers that decorate my daily life by taking their photographs, and then using those as the basis to create abstract blooms of the imagination. I refine each floral portrait through the filter of “abstract imaginative realism”, seeking to discover the mysteries that lie therein. 

The iPhone is my main tool, both to shoot and to manipulate my photographs. By utilizing self-created filters and a variety of apps in combination, I routinely distort the myriad essential aspects of the originals. This dramatizes the textures, contours, patterns, hues, and moods inherent in the flora. I then use the resultant images as individual layers, combining them to create the final piece. The often-painterly results give us an intense and enigmatic experience. 

After a long and rich life collaborating in film, music, and especially theater (principally as a sound designer in NYC), I turned to photography as my primary means of creativity. Not to sound trite, but I have a curious ability to “see” sound, and so, to me at least, my metamorphosis into photography is not so foreign as one might think. My tastes are stimulated by an eclectic spectrum of artists from an array of art forms, eras, and genres whose works never fail to encourage my creativity in this fantastic kaleidoscopic universe. It should also be noted that I’ve always regarded Grandma Moses as a true icon, and now that I’ve passed the age of 70, I feel closer to her than ever. “

– Brian Hallas

2025 NBAS Photography Exhibition “Reflections of the Living World”

2023 NBAS Photography Exhibition “Refracted: Shade and Light”


Exhibition

  • 2022 Powell Lane Arts Collingswood, NJ – Small Works  
  • 2022 Garden State Distillery Toms River, NJ – Double Vision 
  • 2022 Garden State Distillery Toms River, NJ – Meet the Artist 
  • 2022 Powell Lane Arts Collingswood, NJ – Changelings  
  • 2022 Oyster Point Gallery Red Bank, NJ – Pictures 4-artist Group Show 
  • 2022 Garden State Distillery Toms River, NJ – Alchemy 
  • 2022 Garden State Distillery Toms River, NJ – Burst of Color 
  • 2022 Art Alliance of Monmouth Red Bank, NJ – 35th Annual Juried Show 
  • 2022 Powell Lane Arts Collingswood, NJ – 1st Annual Juried Show 
  • 2022 Garden State Distillery Tom River, NJ – Open to Interpretation
  • 2021 Garden State Distillery Toms River, NJ – Spirits 
  • 2021 ChaShaMa Matawan Matawan, NJ – Dreaming of Bees  (Collaborative Interactive Exhibit with Stephanie Sommerlad Bello)
  • 2021 JCAST Jersey City, NJ – The 31st Annual Jersey City Art & Studio Tour 
  • 2021 Garden State Distillery Toms River, NJ – Grown Here. Made Here 
  • 2021 Pleasant Valley Lavender Solo Exhibition – Abstract Imaginative Realism 
  • 2021 J. Mane Gallery Online Gallery juried show – In Full Bloom 2021 
  • 2021 Locals Art Space Asbury Park, NJ – Power of the Flower 
  • 2021 Las Laguna Gallery Online Gallery Show – 2021 Purely Abstract 
  • 2021 Art Beyond Borders Online Visual Art Gallery – Featured Artist 
  • 2021 Locals Art Space Asbury Park, NJ – April Featured Artist 
  • 2021 Nomadworks New York City group show – A Nomadic Journey 
  • 2021 Absynthe Gallery Online Visual Art Gallery – Featured Artist of the Day 
  • 2021 AbstractAZZi Magazine YouTube Photo Magazine – Shot in the Red (Issue No. 27) 
  • 2021 Locals Art Space Asbury Park, NJ – Joint Ventures: A Collaboration Show  
  • 2020 AbstractAZZi Magazine YouTube Photo Magazine – Funky (Issue No. 21) 
  • 2020 Locals Art Space Asbury Park, NJ – Small Works  
  • 2020 J. Mane Gallery Online Gallery juried show – Abstracts 2020 
  • 2020 Monmouth Museum Lincroft, NJ – Member Miniatures 2020-2021 Exhibition 
  • 2020 Fusion Art Online Gallery juried show – 6th Annual Leaves & Petals Art Competition 
  • 2020 Monmouth Museum Lincroft, NJ – Member Miniatures: Big ART in small Packages 
  • 2020 Feature Shoot/ Foley Gallery New York City group show – The Print Swap 
  • 2020 Brooklyn Art Library Brooklyn, NY  – The Sketchbook Project (Vol. 15)  
  • 2019 Envision Arts, Online Gallery, juried show Focus II 
  • 2019 Envision Arts Magazine, Online Publication Feature , Human Activity and the Natural World 
  • 2019 Feature Shoot Online Gallery – Emerging Photography Awards  
  • 2019 Feature Shoot Online Gallery  – The Print Swap  
  • 2019 Monmouth Museum Lincroft, NJ – 2019 Juried Photography Exhibition 
  • 2019 ARTSPACE at Untitled Gallery Show – Postcard Perspectives 
  • 2019 V International Scientific and Practical Conference – Kherson National Technical University Kherson, Ukraine – Innovative cultural and artistic aspects in the modern world 
  • 2019 Art All Night Trenton 2019 Trenton, NJ – Art All Night 2019 Roebling Wire Works 
  • 2019 Monmouth Museum Lincroft, NJ – 40th Annual Juried Art Show 
  • 2018 Art All Night Trenton Trenton, NJ – Art All Night 2018  
  • 2018 Drawing Rooms Jersey City, NJ – Somewhere Over the Interconnected Rainbow  Gallery Show 
  • 2018 Belmar Arts Council Belmar, NJ – Book Art Show Gallery Show 
  • 2005 Cathedral Arts Festival 2005 Jersey City, NJ – Cathedral Arts Juried Show Gallery Show  

 

Artist Website: https://brianhallas.myportfolio.com/brian-hallas-abstract-imaginitive-realism

Email: bhallas0909@gmail.com