Lavett Ballard

Lavett Ballard is an female Mixed Media Visual Artist, Art historian, Curator, and Author. She 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.  

Ballard’s art 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. Among her other accolades is a Yaddo Fellow Artist residency in 2021, in 2023 a NJ State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and in 2018 Pew fellowship nomination. Ballard’s artwork has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and been used in film, television, and literary publications. Along with being acquired by many private and public institutional collections nationally and internationally. 

Ballard views her art as a re-imagined visual narrative of people of African descent. Her use of mixed media collaged layered imagery reflects social issues affecting primarily Black women’s stories within a historical context. 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. 

Ballards portfolio can be viewed via www.LavettBeArt.com