Born Swansea, UK; lives and works in Berlin and Wales.
Represented by Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin.
2020
PhD Winchester School of Art, UK (practice-based research into the use of tactical absurdity in post-conceptual art practice)
2007
MA Goldsmiths College, London (Contemporary Art Theory)
2001
BA University of Derby, UK (Fine Art)
2023
When Words Fail, HilbertRaum, Berlin
Tryst Alternative Art Fair, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles
Practice Sharing II, online presentation/publication by Society for Artistic Research Special Interest Group
Sounding the Depths, Casting Oneself Head First, Yearning, HilbertRaum, Berlin
2022
VIS #8 Rules and Alternatives, online exposition in VIS: Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
2021
Emotionally Confronted Through Distance, Feldfünf/Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin
2020
Dave Ball: Tactically Absurd, solo show at Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, UK
He Told Me to Remain Silent, two-person show at Feldfünf, Berlin
Werkschau, Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin
Un-Cancelled, HilbertRaum, Berlin
2018–19
A to Z: The First Seven Years, solo show at Gallery Oldham, UK
The Perennial Art / O Tannenbaum Christmas Card Exhibition, O Tannenbaum, Berlin
2017
Point Quartz: Flower of Kent, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Punctuation Marks in an Eternal Sentence: The Show, Alfred Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Silent Art Auction, The Drawing Hub, Berlin
2016
Searching for the Welsh Landscape, solo show at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales
Travelogue, Palazzo Ducali, Mantua, Italy
Travelling / Reisen, Projektraum Group Global 3000, Berlin
AVI Festival, Cinema City, Jerusalem
A Blind Auction, Farbvision, Berlin
Minimalism: Location Aspect Moment, Winchester School of Art, Winchester
2015
Media Ambages, HilbertRaum, Berlin
Polyphonies, Optica, Montreal, Canada
2014
Picaresque, Ha Gamle Prestegard, Naerbo, Norway
Slowness / Langsamkeit, Projektraum Group Global 3000, Berlin
Fabric, Oriel Sycharth Gallery, Wrexham, Wales
2013
A to Z: From Aardvark to Axle, solo show at Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin
Be Our Guest, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales
To Make the Improbable, Est-Nord-Est, Quebec, Canada
Stranded Travelers, Atelier 35, Bucharest, Romania
Preview Berlin Art Fair 2013, Berlin
Sense and Nonsense: A Festival of Absurdity, Centrum, Berlin
The Picture Show, Galerie Jaap Sleper, Utrecht, Netherlands
Kantine Chapters, Galerie Futura (Alpha Nova-Kulturwerkstatt), Berlin
We Were Trying to Make Sense, 1 Shantiroad, Bangalore, India
2012
Ha Ha Road, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, Wales
Blows to the Temple, Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin
The Alumni Show, Markeaton Street Gallery, University of Derby, Derby
Numbers, Cultivate, Vyner Street, London
17 Days, Atrium Gallery, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI, USA
2011
Making Mirrors: Of Body and Gaze, NGBK, Berlin
Ha Ha Road, Quad, Derby, UK
2010
The Dump: Recycling of Thoughts, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland
Nude as the News, 91mQ Art Project Space & Kunstraum Richard Sorge, Berlin
Stadt am Rande / Cities on the Edge, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
Die Kunst der Natur ist die Natur der Kunst/The Art of Nature is the Nature of Art, Künstlerverein Walkmühle, Wiesbaden, Germany
Field Broadcast, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, UK
The Box, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales
2009
Artsway Open 09, Artsway, Sway, Hampshire, UK
Extraordinary Days, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales
Plus 3 Ferris Wheels, [touring:] CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA; DDT Delavski dom Trbovlje, Trbovlje, Slovenia; Richmond Center Art Galleries, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI, USA; Smart Wall, Alfred University School of Art & Design; Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University; Hiram Van Gordon Gallery, Tennessee State University
2008
Dave Ball: How to Live, solo show at Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin
Navigator, The Royal Standard, Liverpool
The Mausoleum of Lost Objects, InIVA, London
Closing Down Sale, Another Roadside Attraction Gallery, London
If You Build It They Will Come, g39 Gallery, Cardiff
Speed is Open, Bearspace, London
2007
Disposable Fetish, The Nunnery Gallery, London
Temporary Measures, Associates Gallery, London
In Their Own Words, The End Gallery, Sheffield
2006
Eco Vandalism, Sydenham Hill Woods, London
Beneath, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
Irrational Reels, Rational Rec at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London
Art Video Screenings, Village, Västerås, Sweden
Teetotum, Fold Gallery, Cumbria
2005
Service Not Included, ADi Gallery, London
SSA 2005, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh
The Working World, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
Deptford X, Astra House, London
2004
Love N Bullets, Transition Gallery, London
Max 10, Falmouth Arts Centre, Falmouth
Damn Fine Cup Coffee, Rowse Close, London
Flat, Hackney Road, London
2003
Lux Open, Royal College of Art, London
The Joy of Kitsch, Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen
picsel+, g39 Gallery, Cardiff
made@home, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
Purescreen, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2022
Stiftung Kunstfonds Neustart Kultur project funding awarded
2018
Doctoral College Research Award (PGR Publication/Exhibition, Level 3), Winchester School of Art
2017
Shortlisted for Jon Schueler Scholarship, Isle of Skye
2016
Shortlisted for Berlin Art Prize 2016
2015
Arts Council of Wales production grant for solo exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre
British Council Canada grant to participate in Polyphonies exhibition at Optica, Montreal
Vice-Chancellor Scholarship for PhD at Winchester School of Art
2013
Wales Arts International travel grant to support residency at Est-Nord-Est, Quebec, Canada
2009
Grant awarded for 3-month residency at Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany
2008
Shortlisted for New Contemporaries 2008
2006
Open Frequency; practice nominated by Anthony Shapland for Axis survey of new developments in contemporary art
2005
NAN bursary for Strangers on a Train project
2019
Retreat, Northumberland, UK
2016
Summer Lodge, research event at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
2014
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales; three-month residency at Thomas Heatherwick-designed studios
2013
Est-Nord-Est, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, Canada; eight-week residency followed by exhibition; jointly funded by Est-Nord-Est and Wales Arts International
2009
Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany; grant awarded for three-month residency
2008
Galerie Art Claims Impulse, Berlin; six-week residency followed by solo show
2006
Fold Gallery, Cumbria; part of Teetotum series of artists’ residencies
2023
When Words Fail, group exhibition exploring language, curated at HilbertRaum, Berlin
2011–15
Dinner Party; collaborative participatory project with Oliver Walker exploring social interaction through remote communicative intervention; shown at NGBK in Berlin, Oriel Davies in Newtown, Wales and Optica in Montreal.
2011–12
Ha Ha Road, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandundo, Wales and Quad, Derby; group exhibition exploring humour, curated in collaboration with Sophie Springer
2011
Schöne Pleite: Politische Karikaturen von Klaus Stuttman / Pretty Broke: Political Caricatures by Klaus Stuttman, Galerie im Saalbau, Kulturamt Neukölln, Berlin; exhibition curated in collaboration with Oliver Walker and Dorothea Kolland
2010
Airshow, Tempelhof airfield, Berlin & Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, UK; collaboration with Oliver Walker investigating former airfield through a remotely broadcast aeroplane noise simulation contest
2006
Coryat’s Crudities, various locations in Nottingham, UK; Discotheque project exploring notions of tourism, using the suitcase as a central motif
2005
The Glorious Twelfth, Deptford X, London; Discotheque investigation into the implications of an urban recontextualisation of a traditional grouse hunt
Strangers on a Train, London to Newcastle train route; Discotheque travel and exchange project
2004
Damn Fine Cup of Coffee, Acme Studios, London; Discotheque group show
Flat, Hackney Road, London; Discotheque group show
2024
'Eight variants of tactical absurdity in (post)conceptual art: An overperformance of typological exactitude,' chapter in Katherine Guinness & Charlotte Kent (eds.), Contemporary Absurdities, Existential Crises, and Visual Art, Bristol & Chicago: Intellect books, pp.
122–35
2023
Practice Sharing II,
work and writings featured in online publication by Society for Artistic Research Special Interest Group
2022
'A to Z: Visualising every word in the dictionary in alphabetical order,' VIS: Nordic Journal for Artistic Research, Vol. 8, Rules and Alternatives, Serge von Arx & Eliot Moleba (eds.), Nov
2020
'The use of tactical absurdity in (post‑)conceptual art practice,' PhD thesis, University of Southampton
'Doing things alphabetically: Sartre’s autodidact and tactically absurd practice,' Writing Visual Culture, Vol. 9, Artists and the Philosophers We Love, Alana Jelinek (ed.), pp. 17–27
2019
'Searching for the perfect Welsh mountain: A performance of tactical absurdity,' in Performance Research, Vol. 24, Issue 2, On Mountains, Jonathan Pitches & David Shearing (eds.), pp. 24–31
2013
'Laugh? I could have cried,' interview in Emma Geliot (ed.) It Was Never Going to be Straightforward, Cardiff: g39 Gallery, pp. 96–101
Since 2021
Lecturer, Humboldt University, Berlin
2020–22
Tutor, University of Leeds, UK
2018–21
Visiting Lecturer, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK
2020–21
Lecturer, Bangkok University, Thailand
2019
Visiting Lecturer, University of Salford, Manchester, UK
2016
Visiting Lecturer, Aberystwyth University, UK
Visiting Lecturer, Kingston University, London
2015
Visiting Lecturer, UQÀM, Montreal
2013
Visiting Lecturer, Kingston University, London
2012
Visiting Lecturer, University of Derby, UK