Considered one of the most innovative artists working in the 20th-century enameling field, Fred Uhl Ball (1945 – 1985) was the son of the Bay Area ceramist F. Carlton Ball (1911 – 1992) and the designer, graphic artist, enamelist, and educator Kathryn Uhl Ball . After studying with his parents, the precocious young artist exhibited his work and gave enameling demonstrations at the California State Fair in Sacramento in 1956 when he was only eleven. Two years later in 1958, in response to his mother’s urging to ‘make something you’ve never seen before,’ Fred Ball began his lifelong commitment to experimentation.

Considered highly unorthodox at the time, his experimental techniques which include torch firing, metal collage, conscious exploration of fire scale, and use of liquid enamel materials, are admired today by many of the foremost leaders in the field. He is also one of the artists credited with transforming enameling from its traditional small scale, and an associated preciousness, to an epic scale associated with Postwar painting and sculpture. His best known work The Way Home is a four-part, 6 x 62 foot mural decoration on the side of a parking garage in Sacramento. It is comprised of over 1,488 individual enamel tiles, each twelve by twelve inches. The Way Home, produced between 1977 and 1980, is one of the largest murals ever created in enamel on copper

Organized in conjunction with the biennial meeting of the American Enamelist Society, scheduled to take place in Oakland, California from August 7 – 9, 2009, Fred Ball: Pioneer in Glass and Metal presents a focused selection of the artist’s experimental works produced over a period of ten years: 1974 to 1984.