Mike Ballard
Born 1972 Lives and works in London. Contact
The entropic state of the city is found in the margins, in the unmaintained and uninhabited places, Ballards eye is drawn to the detritus, the residue and the accidental layering of signs and symbols of paints, varnish and stickers, be they instruction or advert. His paintings are laced with the formal translation of these processes using - photography, photocopy, adhesion, saturation, abrasion and addition. In the development of this work he is not simply recreating a found image, he is making a visual commentary on the forces of urbanity that negate, displace and corrode.
Mike draws from a wealth of archival material and ephemera to create contemporary paintings, sculptures and installations that are imbued with not only a rich personal history but also the ethos and aesthetics of an unconventional, nonconformist art upbringing.
In Ballards ongoing series of sculptures made from found hoardings, the medium very much is the message. Their facades retain all the marks of a life lived on the street, exposed to the elements, the wants of site managers and the whims of graffiti writers. Every scratch, stain, scuff, speck and screw hole evidence of their service, their time spent standing as sentinels of a site, as barriers separating public from private. Mike embraces and endorses each imperfection, imposing little to no intervention aside from amputating any areas deemed irreparably damp or insect-infested.
Running alongside the function of the hoardings as a threshold of ownership is a discourse on the control and censorship of identity in the urban environment. The painted wood as body that is at once a passive recording surface and a signifier of imminent change.
Solo exhibitions
Shadow Ban Shtager SHCH, London January 2024
Territorial Gestures OHSH projects, London August 2022
Throw your house out the window (duo show with Michael Weiskoppel) Tick Tack, Antwerp November 2021
Gutter Snipe The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London Sept 2019
Adapt to the collapse Union Gallery, London November 2018
Where the concrete meets the glass The Silver building, Silvertown London August 2018
Laying in the cut KARST, Plymouth end of residency presentation May 2018
If Destroyed Even More True Block Madrid, Madrid November 2016
Capital Slang Angus-Hughes Gallaery. London. June 2016
Advertising The Invisible The Residence Gallery. London. December 2013
I.D.S.T Block 336. London. June 2012.
The Ultra Nomadic Def Smith Cycle Edel Assanti project space. London.March 2011
Whose coat is that jacket you're wearing Walkers Tailor. London October 2010
The All of everything The Arts Gallery. London December 2009.
Where you end, I begin. Hertford road Warehouse. London November 2008
The Good Fight Three Colts Gallery, Bethnal Green London 2005
Selected group exhibitions
Studio Response IV Saatchi Gallery London 2023
Brut Reverie Contemporary Clusters Rome September 2023
Checkmate OHSH projects London May 2023
Post Vandalism Omni Gallery London September 2022
hf. Asylum Studios suffolk May 2022
Filth Thames side studios London April 2022
GlasHard Stedelijk Museum Schiedam October 2021
The Factory Project London October 2021
Summer Exhibition Royal Academy London Sept 2021
Sculpture In The City 10th/11th Edition London until April 2023
Recreational Grounds Thameside Gallery London May 2021
Economy of Errors OHSH projects London April 2021
Summer Exhibition Royal Academy London Oct 2020
Index, World Unit ,London February 2020
Sugar Mountain, The Silver Building London September 2019
Painting and other bad habits Charlotte Fogh Gallery, Aarhus Denmark November 2018
Recreational Grounds Wendover estate carpark, London July 2018
Summer Exhibition Royal Academy London June 2018
Slippage Von Goetz Art London April 2018
In Residence Griffin Gallery London July 2017
Transient Space Prafin Gallery London July 2017
Venturing Beyond. Somerset House London, March 2016
Earth is our Radio. KARST Plymouth, Feb 2016
Mapping the city Somerset house, London Jan 2015
Gone with the wind. Raven Row.London June 2011
Heavens to Mergatroyd The Arts Gallery London. May 2011
Best in Video Gallery Primo Alonso. July 2010
The Twilight Suite Louise Boulin Institute London. July 2008
Future Map The Arts Gallery, Davies St. London December 2007
Into The Frying Pan Espace Uhoda, Liege Belgium. September 2007
Identikit Temporary Contemporary, Deptford London. February 2006
Education.
M.A Fine Art Central Saint Martins College London. 2005-07
Residencies/Awards
Jack Goldhill Sculpture award RA summer exhibition 2020
Member of Royal Society of Sculptors 2019
KARST GalleryStudio 2 Residency May 2018
Untapped Residency Cyprus January 2018
Griffin Gallery project based residency May 2017
Penthouse residency, Brussels March 2016
Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Billboard project Jan 2015
Hermes Wanderland-Saatchi Gallery May 2015
Canals project residency Sao Paulo Brasil- Dec 2013
