Charmaine Ball’s practice responds to structural elements encountered in the built environment. Architecture and materials – forms, angles, shadows – provide impetus for response. Spanning sculpture and painting, her work is characterised by an exploration of line, shape and colour. Formal geometric composition is paired with an organic approach that imbues a liveliness to abstract pieces.
Ball's acrylic paintings on canvas and board use methodical geometric planning to investigate pattern and intersections of colour. Referencing traditions of Constructivism and Hard Edged Painting, the flat application of sharply-defined sections of colour calls attention to the picture plane. The resulting works exist as a sensitive exploration of colour and tonal nuance.
Working with white stoneware clay, Ball’s sculptures examine the spatial configuration, weight and tactility of matter. Hand-built sculptures are bisque fired and left chalkily unglazed. Through the manipulation of material the works arrive at an interplay of weight and weightlessness; light and shadow; positive and negative space. Gesturing to the function of architectural form, the objects are also distinguished by a haunting quality.
Exhibitions
2020
Sculptures at Bathers, Fremantle
Wide Open Road, Nyisztor Gallery
2019
Now, Artsource Salon, Old Customs House
Interview, Nyisztor Gallery
Scene, Nyisztor Gallery
City of Melville Art Awards
Minnawarra Art Awards, Armadale
Between Two Points, Nyisztor Gallery
2018
Galvanise, Artsource Salon, Old Customs House
Gnullar Mia Art Auction, Nyisztor Gallery
PCWK 10, Nyisztor Gallery
City of Melville Art Awards
Double Brick, Heathcote Gallery
Bored Women, Smart Casual Gallery
2017
Scene, Nyisztor Gallery
Artitude Amplified, Telethon Speech and Hearing, Crown Hotel
Shine, Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE
Clyde & Co Art Award Exhibition, Clyde & Co, Perth
2016
Danger Hot Works, Grad Exhibition North Metropolitan TAFE
Auction, Gallery Central, North Metrolpolitan TAFE
Residencies
2017
Ceramic Residency North Metropolitan TAFE
Awards
2016
Shine Award, North Metroplitan TAFE
2017
Winner Clyde & Co Art Award, Clyde & Co, Perth
2018
Winner 3D Sculpture Award, City of Melville
Collections
2016
North Metropolitan TAFE
2018
City of Melville
Future Projects
Between the Eye and the Heart, Lost Eden Creative, Dwellingup, commences September
City of Melville Art Awards, commences October
Post, Gallery Central, North Metropolitan TAFE, commences October.
Wadjemup Museum Sculpture Exhibition, Rottnest Island, commences December
The Patterning Habit, Lost Eden Creative, Dwellingup, commences December