Sarah Ball exhibits in the Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2018
The painting which Sarah Ball submitted for 'The Columbia Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today' 2018 (formerly The Threadneedle Prize) is a striking example of the British artist's practice. The work, she explains, "continues my interest in the theories of Alphonse Bertillon and is one of a series of works made for my exhibition 'Bertillon' shown earlier [in 2018]. Put simply Bertillon was a policeman and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement in the late 1800's using photography to create an identification system based on physical measurements. Used to evidence the pathology of crime and criminals this system was thought to connect outward physical appearance and inner character traits."
Between 2008 and 2018, Mall Galleries partnered with Columbia Threadneedle Investments to present the Prize, which grew to become the UK’s leading competition for representational art. Across the decade, nine exhibitions of the Threadneedle Prize have featured over 750 works, through which over a quarter of a million pounds in prize money was awarded to the winners of the £20,000+ First Prize, and £10,000 Visitors’ Choice Award (since 2010). Sarah Ball was shortlisted for the Prize in 2014 and exhibited in 2013 and 2016. Lewis McNaught, the Prize’s founder and former Director of Mall Galleries explained that the Prize aimed to “to provide a showcase where figurative artists, working in a range of media, can excite, stimulate, and provoke in a way that encourages us to look anew at the world around us."
