About the exhibition
COLLUSION is a celebration of the underground alliances, late-night links, and creative connections Dark Ballad has forged over the last three years. From prominent fine artists like Priscilla Rose-Howe to near-mythological graffiti writers like Pkay, Ballad has joined forces with a literal who’s who of the scene to finally bring this massive body of work under one roof.
Not content with limiting these operations to Aotearoa, the show features international heavy-hitters—including a series of gruesomely satirical pieces with SKAM, one of the USA’s most prolific stencil and paste-up artists. Deeply entrenched in both the street scene and the gallery world, Ballad occupies a unique space, acting as the catalyst for these two distinct worlds to collide.
Rather than just presenting a finished product, the exhibition lays bare the intense physical labor of the print medium—displaying the heavily carved original woodblocks alongside the traditionally framed fine art prints and bespoke garments. By moving the art from raw wood to frames and onto heavy cotton, Ballad has carved a completely unique niche. He allows the audience to witness the immense effort behind the craft while giving them the chance to wear these one-of-a-kind collaborations out on the streets, immortalising what is so often fleeting graffiti or work shown once, and never again.
Dark Ballad
Dark Ballad is an Ōtautahi-based urban artist who has carved out a distinct, unmistakable niche within the contemporary art landscape. Blending traditional medieval printmaking techniques with street level grit, his work spans from high-contrast gothic paste-ups and hi-vis stickers on the city streets to highly sought-after apparel and limited-edition fine art prints.
Armed with a Masters in Creative Practices (Specialising in Printmaking, 2022), Ballad has dragged the ancient medium of woodblock printing kicking and screaming into the modern world—proving it can be fearlessly applied to any surface. His ever-expanding network of joint operations with prominent fine artists and graffiti writers results in fresh, tactile, and highly distinct alternatives to mass-produced street fashion.
Deeply embedded in the local arts community, Ballad frequently channels his technical output into public spaces. His curation of the Carve surfboard art trail in New Brighton for the 2025 Duke Festival of Surfing united over 30 local artists, running alongside his annual workshops and public installations for the Little Street Art Festival since its inception.