Barry X Ball
Barry X Ball (b. 1955, Pasadena; lives and works in New York) pushes figurative sculpture into the digital age, merging 3-D scanning, virtual modeling, CNC/3-D printing, and a 2023 Robotor carving cell with months of hand sanding and polishing. Using translucent onyx, Portoro and Belgian black marbles, sodalite, gold and stainless steel, he re-imagines icons from Corradini, Michelangelo, Rosso and others, as well as contemporary sitters such as Hester Diamond and Michèle Lamy, creating objects of fever-pitch detail and uncanny stillness. After a hand-tool Williamsburg studio in 1988, Ball spent twelve years constructing a three-storey Greenpoint atelier housing robot, computer lab, stone vault, and on-site living quarters. His work has appeared at Nasher Sculpture Center ( Remaking Sculpture ), Ca’ Pesaro for la Biennale di Venezia, Villa Panza & Castello Sforzesco, Frederik Meijer Gardens, SITE Santa Fe, PS1/MoMA, Bass Museum, Museum of Arts and Design, Powerhouse MAAS, Frist, Kunsthalle Krems, Magasin 3, Jeu de Paume, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Beijing Today Art Museum, and at TEFAF, FIAC, ADAA, NOMAD, and numerous galleries worldwide. Public holdings include the Hammer Museum, SFMOMA, Norton Museum of Art, MASI Lugano, MART Trento–Rovereto, FRAC Bretagne, Maramotti, Magasin 3 Stockholm, Panza, Olbricht, Berlingieri and Fondo Ambiente Italiano. Forthcoming presentations span group show BUSTED at Frederik Meijer Gardens (Apr–Sep 2025) and solo projects at Patricia Low Contemporary (Gstaad), Mario Diacono (Boston), Museo Novecento & Palazzo Reale (Florence/Milan) and Space Z, Beijing.
Biography
Born in Pasadena, California, 1955
Lives and works in New York since 1978
EDUCATION
1977 Pomona College, Claremont, California. B.A., Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Selection)
2025
- Pious & Profane, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, Switzerland
2024
- Prophetic Dreams, KUTLESA Goldau, , Switzerland
2023
- Mystics of the World Unite, Sevil Dolmaci, Istanbul, Turkey
2022
- Strange Attractors: The Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Art, Vol. 3: Lost in Space, Apalazzo Gallery, Bologna, Italy
- Cy Twombly | Barry X Ball: A History of Painting and Sculpture, Mignoni with McCabe Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
- Studio Visit. Thoughts and practices surrounding ten artist’s studios., Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2021
- From Ai Weiwei to Marcel Duchamp: Art for Art’s Sake, Shin Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- LA RIVOLUZIONE SIAMO NOI. Collezionismo italiano contemporaneo, XNL Piacenza Contemporanea, Piacenza, Italy
- Natural Beauties: Exquisite Works of Minerals and Gems, Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Washington, D.C., , USA
2020
- Figures and Faces, McCabe Fine Art Pop Up, New York, NY, USA
2019
- Ideal Contagion, bitforms gallery, New York, NY, USA
2018
- On a Pedestal, Castletown House, Co. Kildare Ireland,
2017
- Contemporary Classicism, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm, Sweden
- Out of Hand: Materialising the Digital, Powerhouse Museum / MAAS, Sydney, Australia
2016
- Du Sollst Dir (K)ein Bild Machen, Berliner Dom, Berlin, Germany
- Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, USA
- Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, USA
- Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, USA
2015
- EXOTICA and 4 other cases of the self, me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany
- Beautiful Beast, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY, USA
- Preziosa opera…, Villa Scalcabarozzi, Valenza, Italy
- SELF: Portraits of Artists in Their Absence, The National Academy Museum New York, NY, , USA
- The Figure in Process – from de Kooning to Kapoor 1955-2015, Pivot Art + Culture Seattle, WA USA, ,
- Beyond Classical: Imaging the Ideal Across Time, The National Academy Museum New York, NY, , USA
2014
- Resonance(s), Maison Particulière , Brussels, Belgium
- Veils, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, USA
- Benefit for Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, 42nd Kips Bay Decorator Show House, New York, NY, USA
- Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, USA
- Icastica, Casa Vasari & Basilica di San Francesco Arezzo, , Italy
2013
- LAT. 41° 7′ N., LONG. 72° 19′ W, Martos Gallery, East Marion, USA
- Disaster / The End of Days, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France
2012
- the endless renaissance, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, USA
- Marble Sculpture: From 350 B.C. To Last Week, Sperone Westwater, New York, NY, USA
2011
- The 2011 Bridgehampton Biennial, Martos Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY, USA
- Art Squared, The FLAG Art Foundation New York, NY, , USA
2010
- Passion Fruits Picked from the Olbricht Collection, me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany
- Here and Now, Bologna Art First, Bologna, Italy
- Ultramegalore: Fashion Icon Testimony, Modemuseum, Hasselt, Belgium
- Lebenslust und Totentanz, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria
- Omaggio a Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
- Looking Back / The Fifth White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York, NY, USA
- Barry X Ball, Huma Bhabha, Jon Kessler, Salon 94 Freemans, New York, NY, USA
2009
- Every Revolution is a Roll of the Dice, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2008
- e-form, Beijing Today Art Museum / Shanghai Duolun MoMA, Beijing & Shanghai,
- Corpo Sociale, Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy
- Carlo Mollino, Casa Del Sole, With New Work By Barry X Ball, Salon 94, New York, NY, USA
- Excerpt: Selections from the Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
- An Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, Italy
2007
- Every Revolution is a Roll of the Dice, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX, USA
- Museum Opening, The Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- To be continued…, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
2006
- The Gold Standard, PS1 / MoMA, Centerview, NY, USA
- The Matthew Barney Show, Jack the Pelican Presents, New York, NY, USA
- The Matthew Barney Show, Bar of Contemporary Art San Francisco, CA, , USA
2003
- American Art Today: Faces and Figures, The Art Museum at FIU, Miami, FL, USA
- Minimal to the Max: The Brownstone Collection, Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL, USA
2002
- From the Observatory, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Le Stanze dell’Arte: Figure e immagini del XX secolo, MART, Rovereto, Italy
2001
- Affinités, Le Quartier, Quimper, France
1999
- Loaf, Baumgartner Galleries, New York, NY, USA
1998
- Spatiotemporal / Verk Ur Samlingen 1988-1998, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
1997
- A Private View: Works of Art from Paleolithic to Present, Kent Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- The One Chosen: Images of Christ in Recent New York Art, Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery Fairfield, CT, , USA
1996
- 2 person exhibition with Anish Kapoor, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
1995
- Générique 2 Double Mixte, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
1994
- The Use of Pleasure, Terrain, San Francisco, CA, USA
1993
- Nobuyoshi Araki, Sophie Calle…, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY, USA
1992
- Panza di Biumo… The Eighties and the Nineties…, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
1991
- The Museum of Natural History, Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Painted Desert, Galerie Renos Xippas, Paris, France
1990
- Red, Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels, Belgium
- Information, Terrain, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Sculpture, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
1989
- Pièces Choisies, Gilbert Brownstone Gallery, Paris, France
1988
- Pomona College Alumni Artists, Montgomery Gallery, Claremont, CA, USA
- La Couleur Seule: The Monochrome Experiment, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
- Primary Structures, Gilbert Brownstone Gallery, Paris, France
1987
- Primary Structures, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL USA,
- Abstract Painting, Asher / Faure Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
- Bigger and Deffer, 541 Sixth Avenue Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Rigor, John Good Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Reduction-Plan, Mission Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- The Gold Show, Maloney Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
1986
- Traps, Elements of Psychic Seduction, Carlo Lamagna Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Geometry Now, Craig Cornelius Gallery New York, NY, , USA
1985
- Precious: An American Cottage Industry of the Eighties, Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Selection)
2023
- Monumentalis, Galerie Melbye-Konan, Hamburg, Germany
2022
- Purity and Envy: An Intimate Allegory, NOMAD Circle Art Fair / McCabe Fine Art St. Moritz, Switzerland,
2020
- Barry X Ball: Remaking Sculpture, Nasher Sculpture Center Dallas, TX, , USA
2019
- Barry X Ball: Medardo Rosso Project, Ca’ Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Venice, Italy
2018
- Pietà & Pseudogroup of Giuseppe Panza, Castello Sforzesco, Museo d’Arte Antica, Milan, Italy
- The End of History, Villa Panza Varese, , Italy
2015
- Barry X Ball: Portraits and Photos, 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2014
- Masterpieces, McCabe Fine Art, Stockholm, Sweden
2012
- Barry X Ball: The Obsession with the Object (L’Ossessione dell’Oggetto), Palazzo Mansi, Lucca, Italy
- Barry X Ball: Matthew Barney / Barry X Ball Dual-Dual Portrait, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France
2011
- Portraits and Masterpieces, Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice, Italy
2009
- Masterpieces, Salon 94 Freemans, New York, NY, USA
2008
- Barry X Ball, De Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland
2007
- Barry X Ball, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM, USA
- Barry X Ball, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, Italy
2004
- Barry X Ball: (Matthew Barney), PS1 / MoMA Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, USA
- In Extremis, Le Printemps de Septembre, Église des Jacobins, Toulouse, France
2003
- Barry X Ball, Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
1997
- Barry X Ball, Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
- Barry X Ball, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY, USA
1993
- Barry X Ball, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
1991
- Barry X Ball, Galerie Isy Brachot Brussels, , Belgium
1990
- Barry X Ball, Domaine de Kerguéhennec (FRAC Bretagne) Bignan, , France
1988
- Barry X Ball, Craig Cornelius Gallery New York, NY, , USA
1986
- Barry X Ball, Craig Cornelius Gallery New York, NY, , USA
FAIR BOOTHS (Selection)
2019
- Barry X Ball, TEFAF Maastricht (booth: Fergus McCaffrey), Maastricht, Netherlands
2015
- Barry X Ball: Portraits and Masterpieces, The ADAA Art Show (booth: Sperone Westwater), New York, USA
PRESS
- Chronique d’une fin annoncée, ou la fascination du désastre, Contemporanéités, France
- La virtù dell’imitazione, Prometeo, Italy
- La Mia Grande Bellezza, POSH Magazine, Italy
- Nothing Set in Stone, Family Style, USA
- The Computer and the Chisel: How Digital Innovations Serve the Artist, Sculpture Review, USA
- Inside the Studio: Barry X Ball…, Out of Order, USA
- The Digital Stone Project, Sculpture Review, USA
- Romanticism and the Works of Barry X Ball, The Antiquer, USA
- bowling, Dutch, Netherlands
- Il nuovo Compianto sarà di onice, Il Resto del Carlino, Italy
- Compianto virtuale, La Repubblica, Italy
- Il Compianto negli USA, Corriere di Bologna, Italy
- Visceral Intensity: Stone Portraits Eerily Lifelike at SITE Santa Fe, The Durango Herald, USA
- Sprung in die erste Liga, Handelsblatt, Germany
- Quando la tecnologia dà spettacolo, Il Tirreno, Italy
- Art Work: A Brooklyn Sculptor’s Studio Brings the Creative Process In-House, Wallpaper*, UK
- Cour de force, Financial Times, UK
- Looking Back: Solo Shows, frieze magazine, UK
- Rinasce la Pietà Rondanini, Il Tirreno, Italy
- Perfect Forms: Barry X Ball and the Art of the Improvement, Neue Luxury, Australia
- Post-Basel Buzz, Miami New Times, USA
- STUDIO – Barry X Ball Brooklyn, NY 11211, Cultured Magazine, USA
- Reinventing Its Roots, Art Basel Miami Beach Magazine, USA
- Rendere contemporaneo il passato: L’utopia in 3D di Barry X Ball, Corriere della Sera, Italy
- La pietra dello scandalo è Michelangelo, Arte, Italy
- Perfezione, Tecnologia, Unicità, L’Officiel Hommes Italia, Italy
- Classico contemporaneo: Il marmo digitale di Barry X Ball, Arte, Italy
- Barry X Ball, la tecnologia è tradizione, Il Corriere della Sera, Italy
- Barry X Ball: Ca’ Rezzonico, L’Uomo Vogue, Italy
- Barry X Ball, Tema Celeste, Italy
- Artist Builds Studio on Greenpoint Site, The Wall Street Journal, USA
- Where He Meets She: Sexual Ambiguity as Old as Humanity, The New York Times, USA
- Living Legends: An Artist’s First NYC Museum Show Is No Small Thing, Where Guestbook New York, USA
- Wry to Whimsical, a Summer Eden for Improvisers, The New York Times, USA
- Artists Decorate Palazzos, and Vice Versa, The New York Times, USA
- Above the Grand Canal, “Big Bambú” Rises, The New York Times, USA
- The Merchants of Venice, W Magazine, USA
- Curation’s Onslaught, The New York Observer, USA
- FIAC Rising, Art + Auction, USA
- Barry X Ball, The New Yorker, USA
- Masterpieces, The New York Times, USA
- Letter from Venezia, The Brooklyn Rail, USA
- Barry X Ball: SITE Santa Fe, ARTnews, USA
- Barry X Ball at Mario Diacono at Ars Libri, Art in America, USA
- Les Illuminés de Venise, Point de Vue, France
- La Biennale de Venise, vite fait, bien fait, Le Figaro, France
- Noir, c’est noir à la Cour Carrée, Le Figaro, France
- Fiac 2010 – Quand l’art fait sa foire, France-Soir, France
- Disaster / Erwin Wurm, Art Press, France
- Onyksowe plugastwo, Arteon, Poland
- Conceptual Beauty: The Portrait Sculpture of Barry X Ball, Art & Australia, Australia
- Con le sculture in 3D Barry X Ball guarda alla grande arte italiana, TuttoLibri, Italy
- Barry x Panza: Un pupillo californiano del collezionista, Il Giornale dell’Arte, Italy
- È difficile far da Cornice alla Biennale, Il Giornale dell’Arte, Italy
- Che cosa ha visto Barry X Ball a Ca’ Rezzonico?, Il Giornale dell’Arte, Italy
- Barry X Ball, Es poarte, Italy
- Postcard from Venice, 80 Kulturzeitung, Austria
- East Marion, New York / “Lat. 41° 7′ N., Long. 72° 19′ W” / Martos Gallery, Sculpture Magazine, USA
- Remastering Masterworks: A Conversation with Barry X Ball, Sculpture Magazine, USA
- The Theatrum Mundi of Barry X Ball, Sculpture Magazine, USA
Online
- 54th Venice Biennale, MediaArtDesign.net, France
- Nello studio di Barry X Ball, Antinomie, Italy
- In Barry X Ball’s New York Studio, Ancient Sculpture Meets Cutting-Edge Technology, TEFAF Stories, Netherlands
- The Sculpture Studio with a High-Brightness LG Display, AV Magazine, UK
- New Age Old Masters: A Talk with Barry X Ball, NASTY Magazine, UK
- A Look at the Advancements of Tech in Art with Barry X Ball, Art & Object, USA
- Barry X Ball Puts His Own Spin on Classical Sculpture in Exhibition at Dallas’ Nasher, The Dallas Morning News, USA
- Digital and Non-Human Processes Rule at MAD, International Sculpture Center Blog, USA
- Barry X Ball: Technical Aspects of Crafting “Perfect Forms”, International Sculpture Center Blog, USA
- Andrew Berman Architect Creates Industrial Facility and Studio for Stone Sculptor Barry X Ball, Dezeen, UK
- New Precedents, POSTmatter, UK
- Andrew Berman Architect Creates a Brooklyn Sculpture Studio Fit for Boulders, Interior Design, USA
- Timely Reminder in Dallas: Great Art Is Thrilling to Look At, National Review, USA
- The 100 Most Iconic Artworks of the Last 5 Years, Artinfo, USA
- Barry X Ball: Masterpieces, StyleZeitgeist Blog, USA
- Barry X Ball Makes a 3D-Printed, Digitally Altered, Gold-Plated Sculpture, ARTnews, USA
- Sculptors on Sculpture: Part One, ARTINFO, USA
- The World’s Most Tech-Savvy Art, The Daily Beast, USA
- Barry X Ball (Parts 1 & 2), StyleZeitgeist Blog, USA
- Inside Outliers, Blinnk Blog, USA
- Miami’s Bass Museum Blows the Lid Off Tradition with “Endless Renaissance” Show, Artinfo New York, NY, USA
- Maastricht’s European Fine Art Fair, National Review New York, NY, USA
- She’s the Peggy Guggenheim of SoHo, The New York Times, USA
- 2 Art Gallery Shows to Explore from Home, The New York Times, USA
- Erasing the Binaries that Attempt to Contain Our Bodies, Hyperallergic, USA
- Following the Money, a Grand Old Art Fair Moves With the Times, The New York Times, USA
- 7 Artists Smashing Our Expectations of What Marble Can Be, Artsy, USA
- Artist Barry X Ball Ditching Williamsburg for $18M Greenpoint Space, The Real Deal, USA
- Antiquities Carved by Computer: The Art of Barry X Ball, Observer, USA
- Review: “The Art Show” at the Park Avenue Armory Covers the Creative Map, The New York Times, USA
- Excursions in a Digitally Fabricated Landscape, The New York Times, USA
- Barry X Ball at the Bass Museum, Whitewall, USA
- Barry X Ball: Matthew Barney / Barry X Ball Dual-Dual Portrait, The Brooklyn Rail, USA
- Keeping His Marbles: Q+A with Gian Enzo Sperone, Art in America, USA
- London Dispatch, artnet Magazine, USA
- Different Class, Artforum, USA
- Tefaf Maastricht 2019: Les Dix Coups de Cœur du Figaro, Le Figaro, France
- Le Soleil Noir de Janus, Barry X Ball, La Critique, France
- Fiac Fair Puts France Back on the Modern Art Map, Radio France Internationale, France
- A Roundup of Sales from FIAC’s High-Octane Opener, ARTINFO France, France
- Da Parigi: la Cour Carrée du Louvre e l’Hermaphrodite di Barry X Ball, exibart, Italy
- LG Elec Unveils New NFT Platform, Aims to Turn Living Room into Art Gallery, The Korea Economic Daily, South Korea
- Veils, The Lab Magazine, Canada
BOOKS
2020
- Barry X Ball: Remaking Sculpture, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA
2019
- Barry X Ball. Medardo Rosso Project, Magonza Editore, Milan, Italy
2018
- Sculptural Photographs: From the Calotype to Digital Technologies, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, UK
- Barry X Ball. The End of History, Magonza Editore, Milan, Italy
- L’art au-delà du digital, Nouvelles Éditions Scala, Paris, France
2017
- The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art, Phaidon, London, UK
2015
- Postdigital Artisans, Frame Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Digital Handmade: Craftmanship and the New Industrial Revolution, Thames & Hudso, London, UK
2012
- Archetypes and Historicity: Painting and Other Radical Forms, 1995-2007, Silvana Editoriale, Milan, Italy
2011
- Stone: A Legacy and Inspiration for Art, Black Dog Publishing, London, UK
- Defining Contemporary Art: 25 Years in 200 Pivotal Artworks, Phaidon, London, UK
- The Art of Not Making: The New Artist / Artisan Relationship, Thames & Hudson, London, UK
- Catalog of the Exhibition: 1984-2011, 2nd Cannons, Los Angeles, USA
- Barry X Ball. Portraits and Masterpieces, Edizioni Charta, Milan, Italy
2007
- Memories of a Collector, Abbeville Press, New York, USA
- Barry X Ball, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, USA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Germany
- Thomas Olbricht Collection, Berlin
USA
- Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
- Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Switzerland
- The Panza Collection, Lugano
- Museo d’Arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI), Lugano
Italy
- Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI), Milan
- The Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia
- Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto
- The Panza Collection, Varese
France
- FRAC Bretagne (Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bretagne), Rennes
Sweden
- Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm
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