NEWS

Viewing Room: Paul Narkiewicz

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our latest viewing room featuring 2023 Black Ball Projects micro-grant recipient Paul Narkiewicz.

Over the seven decades of his artistic practice, Paul has developed a distinct visual vocabulary that can be seen as a common thread between the interplay and evolution of the various mediums he works with. In 2010, he began to prolifically make intimately scaled ceramic sculptures, and has begun exhibiting his work again for the first time in decades, with the new works shown alongside his archival paintings and prints.

We are pleased to share a broad overview of his work across his career.

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ANNOUNCING OUR 2022 micro-granT RECIPIENt: PAUL NARKIEWICZ

Application Images
Viewing Room (coming soon)
Interview with the Artist (coming soon)

We are thrilled to announce that Paul Narkiewicz is the recipient of the Black Ball Project 2023 micro-grant. It was a hard decision with such strong nominees and finalists. As this year’s recipient,  they will receive a cash award of $2000, as well as a viewing room and an artist's talk on our digital platform. You can view a sample of his work now here, and stay tuned for the launch of their online viewing room in February, and an interview with the artist in March.

Paul Narkiewicz was born in 1937 in Easton, PA, and studied painting at the Philadelphia College of Art in the early 1960's. After moving to New York City in 1966, he worked in painting, sculpture, and printmaking, and exhibited his work throughout the 1980’s. In 2010, he began to prolifically make intimately scaled ceramic sculptures, and has begun exhibiting work again, with the new works shown alongside his archival paintings and prints.

Paul maintains that he is a sculptor rather than a ceramicist, and has always had an interdisciplinary practice in which one body of work informs the other. Originally trained as a printmaker, Paul demonstrates a lithographer and etcher’s sensitivity to each of these elements. Each figure informs the next, and en masse they form a crowd that only emphasizes each piece's distinct character.

You can view a sample of his work now on our website, and stay tuned for the launch of his online viewing room in February, and an interview with the artist in March.

2023 black ball projects micro-grant: SCULPTURE

We are proud to introduce you to the five finalists of the third annual Black Ball Projects micro-grant: Cammi Climaco, James Huang, Melinda McDaniel, Paul Narkiewicz, and Krista Louise Smith.

The genre this year is sculpture. After meeting initial eligibility requirements of having a mature practice, being underexposed, and having financial need, artists are then judged upon the strength of their submitted works. The recipient will receive the full micro-grant award of $2000, as well as a viewing room and an artist's talk on Black Ball Project's digital platform. Each of the additional finalists will receive a $250 stipend for the labor applied towards completing the application process.

You can view their work now here, as well as meet our nominators and judges, and we will announce the winner shortly.

ANNOUNCING OUR 2022 micro-granT RECIPIENt: Mashell Black

Application Images
Viewing Room

2022 black ball projects micro-grant: PAINTING

This is our second year running the micro-grant program. This year we decided to move forward with a rotating genre format; the genre for 2022 is: "Painting in the Expanded Field". Our criteria is determined by three factors: having a mature art practice, being an under-exposed artist and being in financial need.

View the work of all of our finalists, and visit the viewing room and artist talk of our 2022 micro-grant recipient here.