Austin Ballard: The Indivisibles
The Indivisibles
A selection of sculptures by Open-Call winner Austin Ballard
Resonant of mid-twentieth century furniture, Austin Ballard produces objects that seduce the viewer with their competing surfaces and forms and elaborately balanced shapes. Frequently stacking, propping, leaning, and wedging forms together, Ballard constructs piles of material juxtapositions: wood/glass, ceramic/steel, plastic/concrete.
Opening First Friday, July 5th
6pm – 10pm
NAPOLEON
319 N 11th Street, 2L
Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition Dates: 7.5.13 – 7.26.13
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 2pm – 6pm or by appointment
In the exhibition essay for this show entitled “Things I know about rocks: Thoughts on Austin Ballard’s The Indivisibles at NAPOLEON,” Emily Davidson says of Austin Ballard’s work:
Like the relics assembled by the Chinese Scholars, his sculptures combine natural, formless material (ceramic) with modern, plinth-like form–steel, oak, or glass. However, while the Chinese valued natural form shaped by evolution and erosion, Ballard emphasizes a distinct labor and history in his sculptures. Like a master stone carver, Ballard willfully strives to transform wet clay into believable–albeit bizarre–rock-like form.
NAPOLEON 