Roger Ballen is a visionary artist, who with his research reveals a surreal and often disturbing universe, populated by freak characters, claustrophobic settings and enigmatic symbolism. His images testify to journeys into the abyss of the human psyche, where reality and dream mix in a complex interweaving of meanings and interpretations.
Disturbing projections. Roger Ballen and Joel-Peter Witkin, Antinomies, Writes and Images
The closeness between the works of Joel-Peter Witkin and Roger Ballen’s works trigger other gloomy other gloomy that create tuned dissonances. The atmosphere of a photograph penetrates the other that is placed next door, even at a distance of thousands of kilometers and years. The thread that links the images of the two American artists […]
Roger Ballen & Joel-Peter Witkin: The Uncanny Lens / La Lente Inquietante | Castel Ivano, Musee Magazine
The Uncanny Lens pairs the two artisans together in a way that only compliments the nuances of each other’s work. Staged elegantly amidst the classical setting of Italy’s Castel Ivano, the exhibition takes sixty works from the two artists and examines them together; there is no competition. Ballen and Wilkin are two differently-toned voices telling […]
Castel Ivano : Roger Ballen & Joel-Peter Witkin : The Uncanny Lens / La Lente Inquietante, THE EYE OF PHOTOGRAPHY, L’oeil de la Photographie
The Uncanny Lens / La Lente Inquietante is an exhibition aimed at showcasing the photographic works of two renowned artistic figures, Joel-Peter Witkin and Roger Ballen. Both artists are known for their distinctive and unconventional approaches to black-and-white photography, the human condition, the human psyche and the grotesque. The proposed exhibition seeks to encourage an […]
Les Douches la galerie : Roger Ballen : Enigma, The Eye of Photography
The best way to describe what is strange in my work is the word enigma. In short, I do not have a lucid explanation for this part of my work. Many of the elements in my photographs are beyond my conscious mind; it might be years before I come to a conclusion about them. These […]
Roger Ballen Takes Us Into ‘The Void’, Feature Shoot
As part of Call of the Void, an exhibition at Museum Tinguely in Basel, Ballen presents photographs from two bodies of work, Asylum of the Birds and Roger’s Rats. The images include drawings, people, animals, and objects, arranged to create a single, cohesive whole. Ballen’s work is exhibited next to Mengele—Dance of Death by Jean […]
Photographers on Photographers: Suzanne T. White in Conversation with Roger Ballen, Lens/cratch, 1 August 2023
The concept of the ‘void’ has captivated me since my early 20’s. It is an existentialist idea that ignites questions such as: What is my purpose? Where am I going? What am I doing? Does my work have meaning? Absurdity is another crucial aspect of my work. I’ve been involved in ‘Theater of the Absurd’ […]
Roger Ballen’s wildlife art, The Independant 27 July 2023
Often depicted as an integral feature of the continent, African wildlife, from iconic big beasts to its vast array of species, continues to attract millions of foreign travelers every year. A new art exhibition in the heart of Johannesburg is questioning the relationship between humans and animals on the continent, which spans centuries and is […]
Renowned artist confronts destruction of African wildlife in latest art show, METRO 10 June 2023
Ballen argues through his provocative art installations and multimedia artworks that humans remain at the forefront of the destruction of African wildlife.
Roger Ballen: Call of the Void / Museum Tinguely, Basel, Vernissage TV 21 April 2023
Roger Ballen’s solo exhibition “Call of the Void” is the eighth in a series of exhibitions at Museum Tinguely in Basel that respond to Jean Tinguely’s work “Mengele – Dance of Death”. Ballen’s show consists of two parts: The center of the exhibition space is dominated by a shack, a poor dwelling for people on […]