Dave Ball

In his work Dave Ball explores the idea of the absurd and the irrational by creating shifts between sense and nonsense. His practice is characterized by a philosophical playfulness and the use of humour as a reflexive approach. In referring to commonplace ideas and images, he questions the notions that define our relationship with the world and suggests alternative ways of perceiving it by proposing novel connections between words and things. Ball was born in 1978 in Swansea (UK). He received an MFA from Goldsmiths College in London and a BA from the University of Derby, and is pursuing doctoral studies in art practice at the Winchester School of Art (UK). A selection of his exhibitions includes Searching for the Welsh Landscape at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre (solo) (Wales, 2016), Polyphonies at Optica (Montreal, 2015), A to Z: From Aardvark to Axle at Art Claims Impulse (solo) (Berlin, 2013), and Making Mirrors at nGbK (Berlin, 2011). He has undertaken artist residencies at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in 2014 and Künstlerh.user Worpswede in Germany in 2009. He was the co-curator of the Ha Ha Road project presented at Oriel Mostyn Gallery (Llandudno) and at QUAD (Derby) in 2011–12. He is represented by Art Claims Impulse (Berlin). He lives and works in Wales and in Berlin.