The Art of
Lavett Ballard
bio/cv
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kolbe
Biography
Lavett Ballard is an Artist, Art historian, Curator, and Author. She hold a dual Bachelor’s in Studio Art and Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from Rutgers University, she also has an MFA in Studio Art from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Ballard’s art has been commissioned as a cover for Time Magazine special Woman of the Year double edition released March 2020. Among her accolades she is a 2021 Yaddo Artist residency fellow, named by Black Art in America as one of the Top 10 Female Emerging Artists to Collect. Ballard’s work has been in film productions and exhibited at galleries and museums nationwide. Ballards work has been acquired by prominent collections such as the U.S. Art in Embassies ,African American Museum of Philadelphia, the Colored Girls Museum, the Grant Hill and Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, and Syracuse University Community Folk Arts Center, and Jule Collins Smith Fine Art Museum at Auburn University Collections.
Ballard views her art as a re-imagined visual narrative of people of African descent. Her use of imagery reflects social issues affecting primarily Black women’s stories within a historical context. Her current body of work uses collaged photos adorned with paint, oil pastels, and metallic foils. These photos are deconstructed and layered on reclaimed large and small aged wood fences. The use of fences is a symbolic reference to how fences keep people in and out, just as racial and gender identities can do the same socially. The fusion of wood and photography offers artwork that both explores her southern roots, visually speaks volumes to continuing themes within her community.
Lavett Ballard is currently Co-Represented by both :
Long Sharp Art Gallery- Indianapolis, IN
Galerie Myrtis- Baltimore, MD
Photo of the artist courtesy of Ted Waters
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Photo of the artist courtesy of KD Morris Photography
cv
Education:
2017 University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA- MFA Studio Art
2014 Rutgers Camden Double Major BA-Studio Arts Painting & Art History
2021 Rowan College of Burlington County – AS. – Art
Select Solo Exhibitions:
2021 Rush Arts Philadelphia-‘Rooted: From our head to our Souls’-Philadelphia, PA
2021 Syracuse University/ Community Folk Arts Center ‘ Stories My Grandmother Told Me’ -Syracuse, NY
2020 Long Sharp Gallery- ‘When She Roars’ - Indianapolis, IN
2020 Saint Joseph’s University- ‘Just Like a Woman’ -Philadelphia, PA
2020 Rutgers University-SWG- ‘Her-Stories: Visual Narratives of Women of the African Diaspora’- Camden, NJ
2019 Noyes Museum Stockton University ‘Souls of Black Folk’- Atlantic City NJ
2019 Art Sanctuary- 'Reclaiming Her Time'- Philadelphia, PA
Select Group Exhibitions:
2021 Cornell Art Museum- ‘Heart of the Square’- Delray Beach, FL
2021 - Prizm Art Fair- Galerie Myrtis
2021 – Art Miami Art Fair- Long Sharp Gallery
2021 Newark Arts Festival- ‘Dionne Warwick: Queen of Twitter’-Newark, NJ
2021 UTA Artist Space- ‘Literary Muse’ – Beverly Hills, CA
2020 - Prizm Art Fair- Galerie Myrtis
2020 Galerie Myrtis- ‘Women Heal through Rite and Ritual’- Baltimore, MD
2020 Penn State- Women X Women-Petrucci Family Foundation Group Show, -Lehigh Valley, PA
2019 – Prizm Art Fair- Black Art in America Booth
2019 Noyes Museum of Art, Kramer Hall 'Driving While Black'- Atlantic City , NJ
2019 Houston Museum of African American Culture –‘Dorsey Family collection’-Houston, TX
2019 Noba Art space, 'PHOTO-Based' -Bala Cynwyd, PA
2018 Trestle Project Space Gallery- Contain her, NY, NY
2018 African American Museum of Philadelphia-‘Art for Social Change’-
Philadelphia PA
2018 Timicua Arts House- ‘Housewives Collectives’- Orlando, FL
2018 Little Berlin Gallery-‘Mother’s Day’- Philadelphia, PA
2018 Rush Arts Gallery Philadelphia - Giving up the Ghosts-Philadelphia, PA
2017 MFA Thesis Exhibition-Icebox Project Space- Philadelphia, PA
2017 The Colored Girls Museum-'Urgent Care'-Philadelphia, PA
Select Bibliography:
Cover Art, ‘Her View’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society- University of Chicago Press- 2020
Heguiaphal, Maia, ‘Lavett Ballard’s African American & Female Narratives’ Daily Art Magazine, 12/14/2020
Baker, Chenoa, ‘“To Set at Liberty Them that are Bruised”: Hybrid Antidotes Artistic Apothecaries and Women of…’ Sugarcane Magazine,7/14/2020
Dobrin, Peter, ‘Philly actors, musicians, dancers can’t imagine when they’ll work again:…’, Philadelphia Inquirer,4/25/2020
Graves-El, Ahmad, ‘Timeless Perfection: Local Artist Creates Cover for TIME’s 100 Women of the Year Issue’, SNJToday, 4/7/2020
Cover Art, '1955 The Bus Boycotters' Special edition Women of the Year - TIME Magazine, March 10-17, 2020
Valentine, Victoria, ' Time Magazine Recognizes 100 years of Influential women with Covers by...', Culturetype Magazine- 3/8/2020
Osterheldt, Jenee, ‘Art Basel bears far better fruit than that $120,000 banana’, The Boston Globe, 12/11/2019
Robinson, Shantay, 'Artist on the Move: Lavett Ballard', Black Art In America.com, 6/14/2018
Najuma, Ayana, ' New Generation of Artists weaves common threads for community empowerment', March on Washington Film Festival catalog 7/11/2018
Robinson, Shantay, '10 Emerging Black Female Artists to Collect' Black Art In America.com, 6/14/2018
Carroll, Angela N. ‘Giving Up the Ghost Artifacts/ A Study of Power& Solidarity
Against White Violence in Modernity’, Sugarcane Magazine/ Global Black Art &
Culture-February 2018
Friedman, Sally, ‘Juried show offers a generous display of S.J. talent’, Courier Post- ARTs section, 9/14/2014
Carbone, Mariel- ‘Art for Every Taste’-Burlington County Times- 9/18/14
‘RU Ready’- Rutgers University Camden, MATTER Magazine, January 2012
‘Art Scene NJ’-Featured Artist Article" -2008
‘Home Décor with a personal touch" Burlington County Times- March 2008
‘Voices and Vision Art’-Burlington County Times- February 2007
2004 Mikel, Valerie- ‘Lavett Ore knows how to paint the own’- 2001
Media:
CFAC/ Syracuse University- Black Art Speaks-Highlight
Studionoize Podcast- 'In My Life Time w/ Lavett Ballard'
Yale University Radio- Praxis – ‘Interview with Brainard Carey’
Good day Street Talk, Fox News NY, ‘African American Art and its impact today’
Monmouth County Local Television – ‘Struggles and Success in the Arts’-PNC African American Festival, 2009
Speaking Engagements/Visiting Artist Lectures:
2021 Howard University- Panelist – Art for Social Change- Washington DC
2021 Art Institute of Chicago- Visiting Artist lecture- Chicago , IL
2021 University of the Arts- Visiting Artist Lecture- Philadelphia, PA
2021 Rutgers University- Visiting Artist Lecture-Camden, NJ
2021 Columbia College- Visiting Artist Lecture- NY,NY
2020 John Hopkins University- Black Womanhood: Language Art & History
2019 Tulane University, Visiting Artist Speaker Series - New Orleans, LA
2018 International Curators International, Livestream Artist Talk on Social
Justice
2016 Kean University at Ocean Toms River NJ- Visiting Artist symposium- 2016
Awards and Honors
2021 Yaddo Artist Residency Summer Fellow 2021
2018 Listed by Black Art in America as one of the ‘Top 10 Emerging Black Female Artists to collect.’
2018 The Colored Girls Museum Artist-in-Residence
2018 Alice C. Cole Fellowship Nominee, Wesley College
2018 The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship, Nominee through the AAMP
2016 Artist of the Year of Philadelphia- The Harvest Spoken Soul 215 1st Annual Awards
2014-2015 Bombay Sapphire Artisan Competition Semi-Finalist- NY & Philadelphia
2014 University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA- Graduate Fellowship
2014 Odyssey Arts Award Travel Scholarship
2014 Gullkistan Student Artist Residency- Gulfoss, Iceland
2014 First Place Center for the Arts of Southern NJ-Marlton NJ
2013 Roberta K. Tarbell Art History Scholarship
Select Collections/ Collectors:
U.S. Embassies program- Ambassador Natalie Brown- U.S. Embassy Kambala
The Petrucci Family Foundation Art Collection
The Grant and Tamia Hill Art Collection
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University
Stockton University Art Collection
Syracuse University collection/ Community Folk Arts Center
Saint Joseph’s University/Barnes Museum- shared Private Collection
ABC Studios
CBS Studios
NBC/Universal Studios
The Colored Girls Museum
African American Heritage Museum of South Jersey