Gabriel, 2020, is drawn from a recent series featuring people the artist discovered on Instagram. Seeing the social media platform as a successor of the photographic studio – where people would pose in their best clothes for formal portraits – and the photobooth – where many a nascent self-image was formed and performed – in this body of work, Ball looks at the effect that the visual manifestation of the ‘self’ has upon traditional ideas of portraiture. While they have never met, Ball was immediately drawn to the direct gaze of Gabriel, a student and member of a band. She has used his image with his permission to create a work that speaks to the ways in which we create and curate versions of ourselves in the real world and online, a series of projections further enriched through the process of painting.