Sarah Ball's painting enters Jerwood Collection
We are pleased to announce Jerwood Collection have acquired Emma (2025), an intimate new portrait by Sarah Ball.
Based on a specially staged photograph of artist Emma Fineman, the visage of Emma is distinct from the large painting of the same model in the series made for Frieze London 2025. Rendered in minute detail, this tiny portrait demands sustained encounter, pushing against the grain of contemporary visual culture and the fast-paced nature in which we consume images. With her gaze fixed directly on the viewer, the subject exudes confidence.
“Depending on the scale of the work, the intensity of the formal language varies, but in all the works, the intention is to point you towards the gaze as the way to access meaning. Large or small there is always a balance that needs to be maintained within the work, so the areas that might be defined in the smaller works are left unrendered at a large scale", Ball says.
