Biography
Visual artist Natalie Ball explores notions of Indigeneity as it relates to the racial narratives fundamental to the history of the United States. Ball combines drawing, painting, sculptures, textiles and assorted personal items, through a form of additive material assemblage, to create objects that provide a cross section of the shades of hegemonic power. As an Indigenous woman with Black and Modoc/Klamath Tribe heritage, Ball investigates histories of Native American symbolism in dialogue with contemporary Indigenous iconography to propose alternative definitions of Native life as methods for reinterpreting self, nationhood and shared experiences of the land therein.
Solo exhibitions of Ball’s work include Shed a Tear, Running Deer, Bortolami Gallery, New York (2022); Deer Woman gets enrolled on October 30, 2013, Wentrup Gallery, Berlin (2021); Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Snake, Seattle Art Museum (2019); Bad Lucky Indian, Half Gallery, New York (2019); and Mama Bear, II, Nino Meir Gallery, Los Angeles (2019).
Ball has participated in several group exhibitions, including in/stasis, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2022); What’s Going On, Rubell Museum, Washinton (2022); Ferocious Mothers, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland (2020); We have teeth too, Berkeley Art Center, California (2020); Chorus, Almine Rech, Paris (2019); In Practice: Other Objects, Sculpture Center, New York (2019); Domestic Horror, Gagosian, New York (2019); The Commute, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018); and In Red Ink, Museum of Northwest Art, Washington (2018).
Her awards and grants include the Oregon Native Artist Fellowship, Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, Washington (2021); Hallie Ford Fellowship, The Ford Family Foundation, Oregon (2020); Ida Applebroog Grant, The Cooper Union School of Art, New York (2020); Painters & Sculptors Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York (2020); Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship, Oregon Community Foundation, Portland (2020); and Betty Bowen Award, Seattle Art Museum (2018).
Ball earned a BA in Art and Ethnic Studies from the University of Oregon (2005); a Masters in Maori Visual Arts from Massey University, New Zealand (2010); and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut (2018).
Born in 1980 in Portland, Oregon, Ball lives and works in Chiloquin, Oregon.
SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023)
