Barry X Ball was born in 1955 in Pasadena, CA and lives and works in New York. His work has been widely exhibited internationally over the last 30 years and is represented in many public and private collections.
Ball’s sculptures, although paying reverent homage to their historical antecedents, are completely new. Through the use of unconventional materials and innovative methods, the artist has reinvigorated the age-old tradition of figurative sculpture. Ball employs an elaborate array of equipment and procedures to realize his works, ranging from the cutting edge to the traditional, from 3D digital scanning, virtual modeling, rapid prototyping, and computer-controlled milling, to exquisitely-detailed hand carving and polishing. With their simultaneous fever-pitch intensity and surreal stillness, Barry X Ball’s bravura works make an expansive case for the reconsideration of contemporary sculptural practice.
His work has been exhibited at the Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Powerhouse Museum / Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Museum of Arts and Design, Bass Museum of Art, Ca’ Rezzonico in conjunction with la Biennale di Venezia, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, SITE Santa Fe, Ballroom Marfa, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Le Printemps de Septembre, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Kunsthalle Krems, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, me Collectors Room Berlin, Modemuseum Hasselt, Beijing Today Art Museum, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Le Quartier, Centre d’art contemporain de Quimper, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, and at many international contemporary galleries and art fairs.
His work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Norton Museum of Art, The Maramotti Collection, Le Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bretagne, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, The Berlingieri Collection, The Olbricht Collection, and The Panza Collection.
Barry X Ball: Remaking Sculpture, a comprehensive solo exhibition of new and loaned works, is on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas from January 25 to September 12, 2020.