Martin Ball is a renowned artist who currently teaches and works in the United States. Ball was born in Leicestershire and studied at Central School of Art, Royal College of Art and Ohio State University in America. He then taught at Art Institute of Chicago before returning to the UK. Ball’s first solo exhibition was in 1975 at Molton Street Gallery in London, followed by others at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Sunderland Arts Centre. He was a member of London Group and later, whilst teaching at Newcastle Polytechnic, the Newcastle Group. Ball was included in surveys such as The British Art Show 1979, the South Bank Centre’s touring exhibition The Presence of Painting in 1988-89 and the1990 Northern Lights tour. Since 1997 he has taught at Kent State University, Ohio. In recent years he has had solo exhibitions in London, Chicago, St Louis and Cleveland, Ohio. He has also showed in numerous group exhibitions across Europe and North America.
Ball’s work, which initially employed a limited range of primary colours, involved the creation of abstract designs of a gritty nature, reflecting the ambience of the urban areas around him. He currently produces abstracts based on the doodle. Victoria and Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and New Jersey State Museum hold his work as do a number of company collections.
