Artist: Bro Halff

Artist's Bio - Bro Halff

Since 1972, Bro Halff has pursued an artistic career that encompasses visual poetry, painting and sculpting.

His visual poetry fuses linguistic, visual and sculptural elements into beautiful artworks, which give each poem a spatial reality.

His watercolors depict, with radiant colors and bold composition, rural, urban and small-town America.

His education includes: B.A., Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (1968); M.A. (1973) and M.L.A. (1980), with honors, in creative writing and history of ideas, respectively, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; and advanced courses in art and literature, Santa Monica College and UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, and UCSD, San Diego, CA.

Mr. Halff has worked as a writer, editor, artist, and publisher since 1978.

Representative collections holding his works include the Rare Book Collection, New York City Public Library, New York City, NY, the Fine Arts Library, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, and the Milton Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Representative exhibits include shows at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, the Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman College, Orange, CA (Honorable Mention, "California Currents" exhibit), the San Diego Art Institute, and the Bayfront Gallery, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA, and the San Diego Museum of Art. Mr. Halff’s 2007 exhibits include juried shows in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Texas, and California. A number of his works have won awards at exhibits around the country. One of his watercolors was displayed in the prestigious California Watercolor Association’s Annual National Exhibition. His art has been shown in over 230 exhibits around the country.

Mr. Halff has authored a number of limited-edition volumes of poetry. He also has written two books of watercolors, poetry, and prose sketches about North Dakota, entitled North Dakota Days and North Dakota Travels. Seasonal Delights, which were published in 2020. A book of Mr. Halff's poetry and pen-and-ink drawings was published in 1999 by the Mellen Poetry Press. Seasonal Delights describes diverse scenes of American life, as they are affected by the seasons. In 2021, two books of his watercolors and poetry about San Diego, San Diego Days and San Diego Visions, were published.

Two books of his writings and watercolors of Hawai’i, Hawai’i Days and Hawai’i Visions, were published in November, 2025.

Mr. Halff's style emphasizes strong imagery and lyricism. Robert Pincus, Arts Critic of the San Diego Union-Tribune, has called Mr. Halff's artwork "impressive in its variety...traces of e.e. cummings' whimsicality are in his lines..." Richard Hamburger, the late Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center, described Mr. Halff’s work as "...joyful and sensitive poetry... with a Haiku-like quality that implicitly tells us to seize the present moment."

Mr. Halff resides on Kaua’i, in Hawaii, and in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Mr. Halff has said of his work, “My art emphasizes bright colors and bold composition, to depict the patterning that I see in all of reality. My aim is to capture the spirit of a place or scene. The great American regional artists of the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese art, and the Post-Impressionists and Expressionists all have inspired me. The intent of my style is a fresh and optimistic look at scenes that delight our senses, and that stimulate our capacity for wonder before the world around us.”