About Derek Ball
After majoring in painting at art school, Derek was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at Otago University during which time he began to experiment with resins.
After a period teaching in England Derek transferred to graduate programmes in the USA with the intention of developing his work in the field of plastics. After graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute he stayed on in the Bay Area living from sales of a range of kinetic multiples begun while at the Art Institute.
Returning to New Zealand Derek initially continued with kinetic multiples but eventually took a position as Head of Sculpture at the art school in Dunedin where he developed a broadly based studio programme, designing and building specialist facilities for vacuum forming, bronze founding and equipment for ceramic shell lost wax metal casting. As Deputy Head of School he led academic development culminating in the accreditation of a Master of Fine Arts degree programme.
After 25 years of teaching and with family grown up, Derek relocated to Nelson with his wife and has devoted his time to the challenges of developing a new direction in sculpture – becoming New Zealand’s only sculptor of the landscape.