Draft:Lavett Ballard

Lavett Ballard
Born	Lavett Doreen Ore June 30, 1970 East Orange, NJ
Nationality	American
Education	BA Studio Art & Art History, MFA Studio Art
Alma mater	Rutgers University Camden, University of the Arts Philadelphia
Known for	Mixed Media/ Collage & Art Installation
Website	www.lavettbeart.com

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

References

1. Downey, Jess. "Reinvent: Work of Art". Real Woman Magazine. Capital Health. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
2. Williams, Victor (2 February 2023). "The story behind TIME's 'Division & Destiny Cover". Time.com. Time Magazine. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
3. "This Black History Month, Get to Know 7 African American Artists Who Are Building a New Legacy". ArtNet.com. Gallery Network. 16 February 2022.
4. Heguiaphal, Maia (4 July 2023). "Lavett Ballard's African American and Female Narratives". Dailyartmagazine.com. Daily Art Magazine. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
5. Baker, Chenoa (July 14, 2020). "To Set at Liberty Them that are Bruised": Hybrid Antidotes Artistic Apothecaries and Women". SugarCane Magazine. SugarCane. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
6. Dobrin, Peter (April 25, 2020). "Philly actors, musicians, dancers can't imagine when they'll work again: 'It was like someone pulling the rug out from under you.'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Philadelphia Inquirer LLC. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
7. Pine, DW (March 10–17, 2020). "We Designed 100 New Covers for TIME's Women of the Year Project. Here Are the Stories Behind Them". Time Magazine. Benioff. Retrieved 22 May 2024.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
8. Valentine, Victoria L. (8 March 2020). "Time Magazine Recognizes 100 years of Influential women with Covers with Mickalene Thomas, Bisa Butler & Toyin Ojih Odutola". CultureType.com. CultureType. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
9. Osterheldt, Jenee (December 11, 2019). "Art Basel bears far better fruit than that $120,000 banana". The Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners LLC. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
10. Robinson, Shantay (11 January 2023). "BAIA's 10 Most Transformational Artists of the Year". Blackartinamerica.com. Black Art in America. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
11. Carroll, Angela N. (February 22, 2018). "Giving Up the Ghost: Artifacts/A Study of Power and Solidarity Against White Violence in Modernity". SugarCane Magazine. SugarCane LLC. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
12. Brown, Karida L.; Palmer, Charly (October 10, 2023). The New Brownies' Book: A Love Letter to Black Families. Chronicle Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1797216829. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
13. Scarborough, Klare; Boothe, Berrisford (October 21, 2022). Shifting Time: African American Artists 2020-2021. Petrucci Family Foundation. pp. vi, 68–69. ISBN 979-8218016760. Retrieved 22 May 2024.