Sarah Ball Presents a New Exhibition of Paintings Focusing on the Subject of Identity

Sarah Ball’s works offer up a challenge to the viewer by confronting societal assumption and prejudice. Previous exhibition subjects have included historic photographic immigration archives alongside ‘mug shot’ archives of the accused. With ‘Themself’, Ball’s lens is focussed on the subject of gender and sexuality. The resultant multi-scale paintings explore the complex notion of ‘identity’, as represented through often exaggerated, subverted and non-conformist stereotypes. Ball explores how a persons visual identity, can be supported, enhanced, manipulated, or subverted by oneself or, indeed, by others. The artist, and in turn the viewers, response is key, where both are drawn in to an empathetic, unspoken dialogue with the anonymous protagonist of the work.

‘Themself’ relates to the conscious and subconscious factors which affect our assumptions and interactions, when forming the socially constructed characteristics which define us in the 21st century.

The reference for Sarah Ball’s exquisite portrait paintings come from in-depth research of an anonymous and eclectic range of photographic archives alongside more ubiquitous contemporary sources such as social media. These source images become a starting point for a methodical process of understanding, assumption and translation, where the aesthetic ‘mask’ and what lies beneath become the focus of engagement. Ball’s muses are mostly surrounded by muted backgrounds, which engender a sense of solitude, and delicately rendered clothing or hair, often giving emphasis to a defining characteristic of the sitter’s identity. These in- trinsic details are captured with intensity, revealing an intimacy combined and juxtaposed with more minimalist passages which reflect a greater sense of absence or disconnect.

Sarah Ball is a British artist born in Yorkshire, England in 1965. She currently lives and works in west Cornwall. This will be Sarah Ball’s fifth solo exhibition at Anima Mundi. Works are included in collections worldwide including The Rachofsky Collection. This year the British Museum acqured two print works for their permanent collection.

To enquire about available works please contact [email protected] or +44 (0)1736 793121.

For high-resolution press images, interview requests or any other media enquiries contact: Alice Howard and Jamie Mills (Press & PR) at [email protected] or +44 (0)1736 793121.

'Themself' is on view on view at Anima Mundi, Street-an-Pol, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 2DS Jul. 26-Sept , 2019