Sarah Ball features in 'Being There'
Sarah Ball features in the group exhibition Being There, showcasing four recently acquired Thomas Gainsborough portraits alongside 18 British contemporary artists working in portraiture today. Selected by curator Ingrid Swenson MBE, the exhibition is the first in the No.1 Royal Crescent Gallery's new programme of contemporary art exhibitions.
Ball’s exhibited work, Prudence, depicts an androgynous figure, gazing directly at the viewer. The three-quarter view and formal stillness of the composition speaks to the influence of Renaissance painters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio or Sofonisba Anguissola, Johannes Vermeer and figures associated with the Flemish Baroque.
The artist explains: “I’m inspired by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century painting, in addition to the unknown allegorical painters of the British school”.
The title of the show, Being There is intended to invite visitors to reflect on the experience of artists and their sitters or subject in the act of making the artwork, and to consider what similarities and differences there may be for the role of the artist in Gainsborough’s time and today.
Exhibiting artist include Sarah Ball, Michael Armitage, Frank Auerbach, Richard Billingham, Glenn Brown, Brian Dawn Chalkley, Kaye Donachie, Paul Graham, Maggi Hambling, David Hockney, Claudette Johnson, Chantal Joffe, Lucy Jones, Joy Labinjo, Melanie Manchot, Celia Paul, Gillian Wearing and Shaqúelle Whyte.
