Artist and architect Mac Ball finds inspiration in riverine environments and coastal southern landscapes. Raised along the waterways and marshes of Charleston, South Carolina, he now resides in New Orleans where he has been witnessing an ever-increasing crisis of land loss and environmental devastation. Since Hurricane Katrina, his architectural firm has been rebuilding the City and has focused on sustainable water management. Waggonner & Ball has teamed with experts from the Netherlands to weave stormwater management concepts into urban design initiatives and coastal stormwater projects in Connecticut, Norfolk, Charleston and Houston.
Mac’s love of Louisiana’s coastal landscape and a fascination with the way water alters one's perception of the environment has fundamentally changed his artistic direction in this time of sea level rise. Counterpoised with coastal imagery, a fascination with the source and movement of water that flows to the sea has also born a body of work that is focused on movement and the refraction of light and color that plays upon highland streams.
“Climate change will continue to erode and transform landscapes and waterways, yet Earth will continue to yield magic and beauty throughout this ongoing and inevitable process. My hope is that my work will, for a brief moment, capture the materiality and light, the feel, of this ephemeral threshold in time.”
curriculum vitae
Born 1953, Charleston, SC
Currently lives and works
in New Orleans, Louisiana
1975 B.A. Studio Art/English; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1978 M. Arch; Yale School of Architecture, New Haven; William Wirt Winchester Travelling Fellowship (Top Honor)
1978-1979 Roth and Moore Architects, New Haven
1979-1985 Design Team Leader, Cesar Pelli & Associates, New Haven
1985-1989 Associate, Eskew, Vogt Salvato & Filson Architects
1989-Present Principal and Founder, Waggonner & Ball Architects, LLC
2011 Elected to College of Fellows (FAIA), American Institute of Architects
Group Exhibitions
Louisiana Contemporary Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 2019–2020
James Stirling at Yale/Student Work Yale School of Architecture, Fall 2010
Make it Right/From Concept to Community Contemporary Art Center, 2009
Mac Ball/Recent Paintings Uptown Gallery Group Show, Spring 2008
Art by Architects Contemporary Art Center, 1999
Ten Years Out Yale School of Architecture, Fall 1995
Birdhouses By Architects New Orleans Museum of Art, 1993–1998
Solo Exhibitions
Islands/Bitterroot Suite Page Bond Gallery, Fall/Winter 2019
Topological Narratives Cole Pratt Gallery, Winter 2018
Wish You Were Here Cole Pratt Gallery, Winter 2016
Modern Life Cole Pratt Gallery, Fall 2013
Recent Paintings Cole Pratt Gallery, Winter 2012
Selected Collections
Iberia Bank
The Historic New Orleans Collection
Collection of George Shackelford, Deputy Director, Kimball Art Museum
Bayou District Foundation/Columbia Parc
Collection of E. John Bullard, Former Director, New Orleans Museum of Art
Collection of Alise O’Brien, Architectural Photographer
Capital One Bank
Plauche Maselli Parkerson, LLC
Lambeth House Senior Living