Martin Ball / 4 April - 28 April 2007

The work of Martin Ball can be described as possessing a haunting photorealism quality. In this exhibition, Ball presents striking portraits of four well-known New Zealand artists, each of whom has established an international career in music, dance or in the visual arts. In presenting these paintings, Ball acknowledges the significance and contribution of each subject to New Zealand’s cultural and artistic landscape.

The works also redefine the conventional notion of scale as it is applied to the genre of portraiture and extends an on-going dialogue that the artist initiated in 2000 featuring large scale portrait works. Ball resumes this investigation with images that maintain the soft focus, muted tones, large scale and tightly cropped canvases that have become his signature style. The paintings are always concerned with the nature of individuality and the relationships between artist and subject, and the subject and viewer. They also continually explore the ambiguities of expression and remind us that facial expression is elusive but always compelling.

Ball has recently been announced as a finalist in the prestigious Archibald Prize (2007) held at New South Wales Gallery in Australia. This prize recognises excellence in the genre of portraiture and is the second time Ball has been selected as a finalist, the first being in 2005. More recently, he exhibited as a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards, consequently winning the Peoples Choice Award, 2006. Ball has produced a number of successful commissions and his works are held in numerous private collections and public institutes including Auckland Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery, Waikato Museum and Sarjeant Gallery.