Freep profiles Detroit artist-entrepreneur extraordinaire Ben Hall

Ben Hall has been impressing all who know him with his inexhaustible and multiple energies for close to a decade. He makes art, he’s a percussionist in the experimental bands Graveyards and Trauma and somehow finds time to co-own and operate Russell St. Deli in Eastern Market. We nearly forgot about his label, Brokenresearch, which he runs out of his live/work space in Hamtramck, and Hello Records, a vinyl shop he opened in Corktown. He’s the only Detroit artist in the the exhibition “Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism” currently up at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Excerpt:

Hall is an artist, musician and entrepreneur, but rather than compartmentalize his life, he lets his identities mingle and dance. His greatest creation is surely himself: a self-made man who has transcended his ramshackle roots through street smarts, education and a fierce work ethic.

Landing in the MOCAD show is a coup for Hall, who until recently was an underground figure even in Detroit. His appearance caps an aesthetic growth spurt that, along with an admired debut show at the David Klein Gallery in Birmingham last spring, elevated his profile.

Read the entire piece here.