New Collages From David Ball

Last time I heard from San Francisco-based artist David Ball, he told me he had been prepping for a series of shows all over the country. The new collages he shared with me, which have been displayed for some of these exhibitions, clearly indicate that the artist hasn’t lost his chops.

The pieces show David’s ability to flawlessly blend the materials he uses with painting techniques that provide each piece a strong sense of identity. The raw, gritty aesthetics of his earlier oeuvre are also at play, particularly with his use of cut-out guns and knives to assemble his wonderfully strange characters. However, unlike his Escalation: A Reluctant War series or the old illustration sheets on his site, there’s a brighter color palette that removes some of the gloom and despair of previous works, allowing the viewer to enjoy the more fantastical side of his pieces. As always, the surrealistic landscapes demonstrate David’s keen imagination and his ability to tell stories about the inhabitants of some other-worldly place.