Draft:Lavett Ballard

Lavett Ballard (b. 1970) is an American contemporary visual artist based in Southern New Jersey. Ballard is a mixed media collage artist whose art is viewed as re-imagined visual narratives of people of African descent. Her use of mixed media collage layered imagery reflects social issues affecting primarily Women of colors stories within a historical context. Lavett Ballard's work has been commissioned as a cover twice for Time Magazine first in March 2020 for their special multi cover edition for the 100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage and in February 2023 for a cover and interior art for Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s essay about her book CASTE: Origins of our Discontent. Ballard’s artwork has also been used in film, television, and literary publications in addition to being acquired by many private and public institutional collections nationally and internationally. In 2023 she received a NJ State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and in 2024 her art was included in the NAACP Image Award winning Non-Fiction book The New Brownies' Book: A Love Letter to Black Families by Karida L. Brown & Charly Palmer.

Education
Lavett Ballard holds a dual Bachelor’s in Studio Art and Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from Rutgers University- Camden, and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Work
Ballard body of work uses collaged photos adorned with paint, oil pastels, handmade papers, 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. This fusion of wood and photography offers artwork that both explores her southern roots, yet visually speaks volumes to continuing themes within her community. Ballard has expanded her core body of work on wood to include works on paper, sculpture and art Installations.

Exhibitions

 * 2024  Galerie Myrtis- Good Fences’ Neighboring Narratives of the Soul- Baltimore, MD
 * 2023  Projective Eye Gallery/UNCC- ‘May All your Fences have a Gate’- Charlotte, NC
 * 2023  Philadelphia International Airport- ‘Say a Little Prayer -Philadelphia, PA Terminal C
 * 2023  Delta Arts Center- ‘Re-Imaged Legacy’ - Winston Salem, NC
 * 2022  Bridgewater State University- ‘The Ground We Stand On’ -Bridgewater, MA
 * 2022  Long Sharp Gallery-‘ My Soul has got to Move’-Indianapolis, IN
 * 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  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

Museums/Institutions

 * 2024   Museum of Contemporary Art, Arlington- Solace & Sisterhood- Arlington, VA
 * 2023   Frances M. Maguire Museum – The Black Communion- Philadelphia Artists- Merion, PA
 * 2023   MoCada NYC- ‘M’Dear Project- Governor’s Island NY
 * 2022   Art Melanated- ‘The Divine Feminine’ - Los Angeles, CA
 * 2022   Newark Museum of Art- ‘Art of Healing’- Newark, NJ
 * 2022   Kutztown University- ‘ Faces & Projections: Works from the Petrucci Family Foundation African American collection’- Kutztown, PA
 * 2021  Cornell Art Museum- ‘Heart of the Square’- Delray Beach, FL
 * 2021   Newark Arts Festival- ‘Dionne Warwick: Queen of Twitter’-Newark, NJ
 * 2021   UTA Artist Space- ‘Literary Muse’ – Beverly Hills, CA
 * 2020   Penn State- Women X Women-Petrucci Family Foundation Group Show, -     Lehigh Valley, PA
 * 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
 * 2014   Rush Arts Gallery - Bombay Sapphire Artisan Show-Chelsea, NY
 * 2012   James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University- ‘Speak my Name’- Baltimore, MD
 * 2012   Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center- Black Male Identity Project- Baltimore, MD

Awards, Residencies and Honors

 * 2024 Vermont Studio Center residency- Summer 2024
 * 2024  Studios of Key West residency - Summer 2024
 * 2024 NAACP Image Award Non-Fiction (Art collaboration)
 * 2023 NJ Individual Fellowship Grant
 * 2021  Congressional Award in Artistic Recognition for NJ
 * 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 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship, Nominee through the AAMP
 * 2014 University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA- Graduate Fellowship
 * 2014 Gullkistan Artist Residency- Gulfoss, Iceland

Collections

 * U.S. Embassies program- Ambassador Natalie Brown- U.S. Embassy Kambala
 * The Petrucci Family Foundation Art Collection
 * The Grant and Tamia Hill Art Collection
 * Novartis Pharmaceuticals 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
 * Francis M. Maguire Art Museum (In acquisition)
 * ABC Studios
 * CBS Studios
 * NBC/Universal Studios
 * The Colored Girls Museum
 * Hill Harper House
 * Conrad Hotel Private Collection- Indianapolis, IN
 * African American Heritage Museum of South Jersey
 * Roxanne Gay- Author