Roscoe Hall is a Birmingham-based artist and chef whose work lives at the intersection of food, art, and cultural memory. He’s cooked just about everywhere across the U.S., carrying stories from kitchens into galleries and museums where his works — now in institutional collections — draw on layered histories. Using materials pulled from the soil, scraps of fabric, and the everyday, his paintings speak to migration, family, and the survival of the rural South. Beyond his studio and stove, Roscoe helps build educational platforms to deepen food knowledge, especially for folks stepping into entrepreneurship and community-driven cooking. His practice leans into regional research to honor overlooked narratives and spotlight the resilience that still thrives in and beyond the Southeast.
Artist Statement
Roscoe Hall interrogates and reframes cultural narratives through an African American lens, fusing pigment, fabric, and raw texture to surface overlooked histories. Grounded in his dual practice as a painter and chef, Hall pulls from Southern roots, punk energy, and a deep sense of place to build a language of folklore, memory, and identity. His work explores how region and history shape communities, honoring those who have carried joy, resilience, and survival across generations. At the edge of material and metaphor, Hall works with soil, spices, denim, and burlap, collapsing the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, object and ritual. Layered surfaces and reclaimed elements create a tension between reverence and disruption — a practice rooted in care, clarity, and an unflinching refusal to conform.
