Hal Camplin BIO
Hal Camplin has a spinal condition and lifelong chronic pain. He settled and set up a studio in Bristol in 2002 and engaged with the artist-led scene across the UK. Hal is known for his punky D.I.Y. approach to art and makes drawings, paintings, sculptural assemblages, and live art with an intense, raw, often surreal energy.
One of the more absurd art projects called Moggy Marks, where Camplin made a series of works and shows with his cat Larry.
Camplin’s performance work in a giant badger outfit with a show called Badgertrap. Starring in upstaged talent show on BBC3 and touring throughout England, Edinburgh and Berlin from 2008-2014.
A second operation on his brain in his 30s led him to a period of depression and mental health breakdown. He had to stop working but re-emerged with a show called Illness and Anarchy (2017) highlighting his shift through pain to humour and burnout. This developed into a mobile social art project, When Pain Meets Art (2016-2019) where he went out to collaborate with people struggling to stay creative due to their experience of physical and emotional illness.
After studying art psychotherapy (2019-2022), Camplin was able to return to painting during the pandemic. He rediscovered the freedom in painting and a kinder connection with his body and movement. His health improved greatly and the colour in his paintings represents this shift.
Camplin studied active imagination as part of his work (a form of conscious meditative dream work developed by Carl Jung). This kind of practice creates infinite potential to work with our often inaccessible dream worlds. Camplin has written a dissertation covering using active imagination with art to tackle psychosocial effects for chronic pain.
