Drawing on a rich tradition of woodcraft and joinery techniques, sculptor Austin Ballard upends the rigidity of formal practice and functionality through the introduction of large, abstract forms and unexpected juxtapositions. At first, the overall effect may appear contradictory and aesthetically haphazard, but closer examination reveals among the disparate elements a fluidity of form that is at once balanced and expressive.
During his residency, Ballard intends to expand on themes of “falling architecture” in which motifs and materials associated with intimate, domestic interiors are combined with raw industrial steel and concrete. Proposed works for outdoor spaces will explore how we live both together and apart within the structures that define those relationships and boundaries.
A native of Charlotte, North Carolina Austin Ballard received his BFA from the UNC Charlotte College of Art+Architecture and his MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Ballard is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and has participated in residencies at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Scotland (2013), and the Vermont Studio Center (2011).