BARRY X BALL: MASTERPIECES

Stockholm: November 20 – December 20, 2014 & January 7 – January 17, 2015

Press Release:

McCabe Fine Art is proud to present the work of New York-based artist, Barry X Ball, in his first exhibition in Sweden since his exhibition at Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art in 1993. The preview at McCabe Fine Art takes place on November 19, 6-8 PM, in the presence of the artist.

Ball is known for producing magnificent sculptures that incorporate both the classical and the contemporary, directly engaging art historical sources with the latest digital sculpture techniques. His work has been shown at prestigious institutions and international exhibitions and fairs in the US and Europe, most recently at the Bass Museum in Miami, The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and in conjunction with the 2011 Venice Biennale.

Ball revisits traditional figurative stone and bronze sculpture with unconventional materials and a complex array of methods that range from traditional hand carving and polishing to cutting-edge 3-dimensional scanning, virtual modeling, and computer-controlled milling. Even though his sculptures can be traced back to their original sources, they are completely new and unique in their modes of fabrication and display, uniting timeless virtuous human creation and contemporary technology.

In this exhibition, three sculptures by Ball will be presented. Two of the works, Purity and Envy, were inspired by Italian Baroque masterpieces in the permanent collection of Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice: Antonio Corradini’s Dama Velata (La Purità) and Giusto Le Court’s La Invidia. Ball employed an advanced 3D digital scanner to collect data on both of the Baroque works in order to ultimately produce his own sculptures in semi-translucent stones not traditionally used for sculpture. Transcending the material and aesthetic limitations of white marble, Ball’s glowing materials create the illusion that his sculptures emanate light. Blurring the lines between stone, flesh, and delicate folds of cloth, the artist brings his figures to life in an uncanny manner likely unforeseen by his Baroque antecedents.

The third sculpture, Perfect Forms, is a thorough re-imagining of the work of another Italian artist: Umberto Boccioni’s bronze Unique Forms of Continuity in Space in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Italian Futurist icon appears to be carved by the force of speeding wind as it forges ahead. While Unique Forms, as for Ball’s Purity and Envy, is itself evocative of ancient sources, Boccioni’s ambition was to create a sculptural counterpart to the sleek modern industrial machinery celebrated by the Futurists one hundred years ago. Ball's homage to Boccioni’s figure is completely re-sculpted, with hyper-refined edges, smoothly sweeping curves and the precision of a car body. Its highly polished gold finish sets it apart from the rough-hewn bronze original posthumously cast from a plaster sketch.

In these new renditions of ancient and modern works, Ball’s imbues classical forms with new life. His exquisitely detailed sculptures attest to the artist’s mastery of contemporary techniques and reverence for the timelessness of human creation.

Barry X Ball

Barry X Ball was born in 1955 in Pasadena, CA. He lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Ca' Rezzonico in conjunction with la Biennale di Venezia; PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; SITE Santa Fe; Ballroom Marfa; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stockholm; Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse; Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bretagne; Kunsthalle Krems, Austria; Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, Switzerland; me Collectors Room, Berlin; Modemuseum Hasselt, Belgium; Beijing Today Art Museum; Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy; Le Quartier, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Quimper, Bretagne; Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon; and many international contemporary galleries and art fairs.

His work is included 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 III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Museo Cantonale d'Arte di Lugano, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, The Berlingieri Collection, The Olbricht Collection, and The Panza Collection.

McCabe Fine Art

Noted art advisor, dealer and collector, Paul Frank McCabe, opened McCabe Fine Art in Stockholm, Sweden in 2013. An extension of his eighteen years of art market experience and connoisseurship, the beautifully renovated showroom in central Östermalm presents works by modern and contemporary masters as well as emerging talents. Through a program of curated, thematic and monographic exhibitions, McCabe Fine Art brings new voices to Scandinavia’s dynamic international art scene.

For more information, please contact Paul Frank McCabe at paul@mccabefineart.com or +46 (0) 709 99 77 46. 

Download the Press Release PDF

View more Press