Barry X Ball: The Shape of Time

The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore will present The Shape of Time, a major survey of the sculptural practice of the American artist Barry X Ball that celebrates the meeting between technological advances and Renaissance tradition set within the architectural masterpiece of Andrea Palladio.

The artist’s works will be in dialogue with the sacred space of the Palladian Basilica, reinterpreting the past through a bold and experimental formal approach. The Shape of Time will bring together 23 sculptures in the basilica, with most of these works being shown to the public for the first time. It is curated by the renowned critic Bob Nickas with the coordination of Carmelo A. Grasso, Director and Institutional Curator of Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore – ETS branch. Barry X Ball was born in 1955 in Pasadena, CA and lives and works in New York. He has reinvigorated the age-old tradition of figurative sculpture through the use of unconventional materials and methods. Ball employs a complex array of equipment and procedures to realize his sculptures, ranging from the cutting edge to the traditional, from 3D digital scanning, virtual modeling, 3D printing, and computer-controlled milling to hyper-detailed hand carving and polishing. Although paying reverent homage to their historical antecedents, they are completely new. With their simultaneous fever-pitch intensity and surreal stillness, Barry X Ball’s bravura works make an expansive case for the reconsideration of contemporary sculptural practice.

What to expect:
Sculpture, Painting