UNEARTHING BEAUTY FROM BROKENNESS:
List of Works by Marlon F. Hall
Across these works, brokenness is not the end of the story. It is the raw material from which beauty—and new belonging—emerges. Separate stories, geographies, and histories share a visual meditation with portals and alters that call us home. Collection details below.
Each work extends an invitation: to see fracture as revelation, and the discarded as a luminous architecture of belonging.
Phoenix Rises, on exhibition at Ruby Projects in the Houston Museum District.
For over two decades, Marlon F. Hall has transformed found objects, photography, and film into lived stories that reveal beauty within what the world often discards. In these sculptures, that practice turns inward. Each piece is composed of fragments and inspirations—doors, wood, hardware, and inherited home materials—gathered from Houston, Tulsa, Nairobi, Madison, Venice, and Hall’s ancestral home in Homer, Louisiana, built after emancipation.
PORtal No.4 (TURN)ING
Medium: An archival barn door offered by the first Black Mason Lodge in Wisconsin, offcuts from the Hueman public art project underneath the Milam Street Underpass and an old door from Houston friend and architect/artist Peter Merwin.
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
Wood, mixed media, archival doors
Dimensions: 65 x 36 inches
13000.00
PORtal No.3 (KNOW)ING
Medium: Found wood from inherited materials, painted
oxidized hardware with a old railroad nail from Tulsa,
Oklahoma on the Site of the 1921 Massacre.
Dimensions: 16 x14 inches
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
This work represents the portal we create when we
surrender. Surrender is the deepest form of transformation.
We let go to give in to the lives we most desire.
11000.00
“The greatest gift I have received in a season of disorientation has been discovered in my meditative practice of found object sculpture making—a beauty uncovered in the midst of brokenness. These sculptures are less about building and more about listening to the materials as they tell me how they want to become architectural altars and spiritual portals of memory and imagination.”
ALTER NO. 9: (TOTE)EM
Medium: Live Oak, Water Hose, Ancient Siding from Hall’s
ancestral family Homestead, layered remnants. This sculpture stands as a circular monument and totem for the timeless through presence.
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
Dimensions: 48 x 12 inches
8000.00
ALTER NO. 5: (SING)ING
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/MADISON/TULSA
Medium: Built from overlooked materials, this sculpture reframes the
forgotten as foundational—lifting what was cast aside into a
place of song, visibility and dignity. Shaped as an instrument and space for offering songs as prayers.
Dimensions: 16 x14 inches
6000.00
6
PORtal No.2 (LAYER)ED
Medium: Wood Stained and Painted Doors cut and assembled as a visual portal.
Dimensions: 13 x10inches
Individually and collectively, these works function as both altar and portal: altars that witness memory, and portals that open toward personal and communal renewal.
PORtal No.2 (LAYER)ED
Medium: Wood Stained and Painted Doors cut and
assembled as a visual portal
Dimensions: 13 x10inches
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ ITALY/KENYA/
MADISON/TULSA
This sculpture comes from a door that Hall discovered in his
Louisiana Home. It takes geometric shapes that become a
contemplation on how the layers of life’s complexities can be
nuanced transit from one season of life to the other. The
Ochre color is inspired by the oxide rich color of the soil in
Homer, Louisiana. The Blue represents the sky. Between
earth and sky the view is invited to stand in the layers.
$6000
THE ECOTONE
Medium: Bench made of Live Oak from the East End neighborhood where Hall’s studio is. The bench is made for meditation. An ecotone is a living edge — where distinct worlds overlap, tension holds possibility, and new life emerges. Meditation is the practice of drawing near to the ecotone of our lives. The spaces in between who we are and who we are becoming.
Dimensions: 48 x 36 inches
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON
6000.00
ALTER NO. 7: (LOVE)ING
Medium: Live Oak Wood, fractured hardware, domestic
fragmentsAncestral Wall Paper from Hall’s family
homestead inherited materials from Homer, Louisiana,
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ KENYA/MADISON/
TULSA
Dimensions: 6 X 30 Inches Year: 2025 In its posture is a
reminder: the
6000.00
PORtal No.8
(TRAVEL)ING
Medium: Found wood from a window shade,
inherited materials, oxidized hardware with a old
railroad nail from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the Site of
the 1921 Massacre.
Dimensions: 15 x 12 inches
Year: 2025
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
9000.00
The Four Meditations Exhibition and Activation at Ruby Projects in the Houston Museum District.
ALTER NO. 6: (LISTEN)ING
Medium: Found Live Oak, Ancestral Wall
Paper from Hall’s family homestead inherited
materials from Homer, Louisiana, Architectural
Materials from Madison, Tulsa, and Nairobi.
6000.00
PHOENIX RISES (Not for Sale)
Medium: Wood, burned remnants, metal, symbolic
fragments
Dimensions: 48 x 36 inches
Year: 2025
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ ITALY/KENYA/
MADISON/TULSAThis is a sculptural work Hall made as a meditation on his
daughter whose name is Phoenix. For Hall she is what
answered prayer laughs, sings, and dances like when God
answers it. She is a miracle child. This piece born from what
has been charred and discarded, this work embodies the
resilience of rising from ruins. A spiritual altar to rebirth, ascent,
and the alchemy of fire.
ALTER NO. 4: (MASK)ING
Medium: Found wood, Ancestral Wall Paper from Hall’s family homestead inherited materials from Homer, Louisiana, Pottery, Light, Switch Case, Tile
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
Dimensions: 10 x 10 Inches
Year: 2025
Fragments passed down through generations merge with contemporary remnants, creating a layered altar where ancestral memory becomes structural support.
5000.00
ALTER NO. 2: (RE)TURNING
Medium: Reclaimed Wood, Tiles, Ancestral Wall
Paper from Hall’s family homestead, metal
hardware, archival fragments. A portal shaped from
domestic materials once abandoned under open
sky. Dimensions: 10 x12 inches
5000.00
Not available for sale.
byBlood The Mother-Board
Medium: Alter made of Live Oak from the East
End Neighborhood where Hall made the work
and is showing the work with tile from Italy.
Clothe stained with color. This piece explores
the bloodline as architecture—how lineage, like
wood grain, runs beneath every visible surface.
Dimensions: 11 x 12 inches
4000.00
byBlood No Two
Medium: Alter made of a Window Shade from
the East End Neighborhood, tile,
and oxidized metal wire from
the railroad tracks that are the
site of the 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre. This piece explores
the bloodline as architecture—
how lineage, like wood grain,
runs beneath every visible
surface.
Dimensions: 11 x 12 inches
2500.00
byBlood No Three
Medium: Alter made of a Window Shade from
the East End Neighborhood, tile,
and oxidized metal wire from
the railroad tracks that are the
site of the 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre. This piece explores
the bloodline as architecture—
how lineage, like wood grain,
runs beneath every visible
surface.
Dimensions: 11 x 12 inches
2500.00
byBlood No Four
Medium: Alter made of a Window Shade from
the East End Neighborhood, tile,
and oxidized metal wire from
the railroad tracks that are the
site of the 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre. This piece explores
the bloodline as architecture—
how lineage, like wood grain,
runs beneath every visible
surface.
Dimensions: 11 x 12 inches
2500.00
byBlood No Five
Medium: Alter made of a Window Shade from
the East End Neighborhood, tile,
and oxidized metal wire from
the railroad tracks that are the
site of the 1921 Tulsa Race
Massacre. This piece explores
the bloodline as architecture—
how lineage, like wood grain,
runs beneath every visible
surface.
Dimensions: 11 x 12 inches
2500.00
PORtal No.6 (SEE)ING
Medium: Found wood from a window shade, inherited
materials, oxidized hardware with a old railroad nail from
Tulsa, Oklahoma on the Site of the 1921 Massacre.
Dimensions: 48 x 36 inches
Year: 2025
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
5000.00
PORtal No.1 (LEAN)ING
Medium: Wood, Stained Cloth, Sand-Paper, and Archival Knob
from Kenya,
Dimensions: 48 x 36 inches
Year: 2025
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/MADISON/TULSA
This sculpture represents the inner paths Hall travels as he leans into his faith in God and his hope in humanity. Inspired by a song in Hall’s gospel tradition, it stands as a portal for anyone seeking to journey inward when the world around them feels pushy, loud, demanding, or overwhelming.
3500.00
PORtal No.5 (SHEAD)ING
Medium: Found wood from a
window shade, inherited
materials, oxidized hardware with
a old railroad nail from Tulsa,
Oklahoma on the Site of the
1921 Massacre.
Dimensions: 48 x 36 inches
Year: 2025 Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/KENYA/HOMER
11000.00
PORtal No. 7 (SIT)ING
Medium: Alter made of Live Oak from the East
End Neighborhood where Hall made the work
and is showing the work with tile from Italy.
Family chair inherited from Hall’s father.
Dimensions: 60 x 38 inches
16500.00
ALTER NO. 1: (RE)MEMBERING
Medium: Reclaimed Wood, Inherited materials,
Metal hardware
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ KENYA/
TULSA
Dimensions: 10 x 10 inches
Year: 2025
A sculptural hinge between past and present, anchored by an oxide rich rock from Hall’s Ancestral Homer, Louisiana, this piece listens to the grain of salvaged wood as it points toward the stories it once held. An altar built of fragments made to invite us to remember what the body forgets.
5000.00
HOME, BROKEN-OPEN NO. 1
Medium: Found architectural fragments, Pieces of a door that come from the first Black Masonic Lodge in Wisconsin donated to Hall by the members of the lodge, domestic materials. This piece reimagines home not as a fixed structure, but as a place cracked open—where vulnerability allows new belonging to emerge.
Dimensions: 13 x10 inches
Year: 2025
2500.00
ALTER NO. 3: (CROSS)ING
Medium: Discarded door segments, brass hinges, domestic remnants
Dimensions: 4 x 60 inches
Geography: EAST END HOUSTON/ HOMER/ KENYA/MADISON/TULSA
Year: 2025
Crafted from a door that no longer opens, this work transforms stillness into invitation—an intersection and crossway for those willing to sense the good even when put on a cross and seen as bad. It is a crossing over from pain to resurrected promise.
The Four Meditations Exhibition and Activation at Ruby Projects in the Houston Museum District. “Gaze” reflecting “Sitting”.
THE GAZE
Medium: Reclaimed Mirror Made to embody the
courage it takes to see and gaze it take to learn
about who we are.
Dimensions: 48 x 24 inches
6000.00