Two woman-owned, established galleries join forces to promote artist Lavett Ballard, the emerging artist whose portrait of Rosa Parks made the cover of TIME Magazine in March 2020.
Ballard creates what she describes as “reimagined visual narratives of people of African descent”. Her current body of work uses collaged photos adorned with paint, oil pastels, and metallic foils, deconstructed and layered on reclaimed wooden fences.
Named by Black Art in America as one of the Top 10 Female Emerging Artists to Collect, Ballard has placed works in the private collections of the African American Museum of Philadelphia, the Colored Girls Museum, the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, among others. Gallery owners Myrtis Bedolla and Rhonda Long-Sharp were watching.
As of October 1, 2020, Lavett Ballard appeared on the “represented artist” list for each of their respective galleries. Galerie Myrtis, located in Baltimore, specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century American art with a focus on work created by African American artists. Long-Sharp Gallery, located in Indianapolis and New York, specializes in twentieth century modern masters and contemporary art, with a growing roster of contemporary female artists.
Long-Sharp, who has been following Ballard since 2018, is “delighted to join forces with the inimitable Myrtis Bedolla to shine a light on Ballard’s work”. According to Bedolla, ”Long-Sharp Gallery has an exemplary reputation in the fine art world. I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with Rhonda to advance Lavett’s career. She is an artist of such great promise.”
Lavett Ballard’s first solo exhibition with Long-Sharp Gallery, When She Roars, will take place in Long-Sharp Gallery | Virtual this month. The gallery will publish a printed catalogue as well as an e-catalogue to commemorate Ballard’s first exhibition. Bedolla already included Ballard in a group exhibition which opened earlier this year. That exhibit, Women Heal through Rite and Ritual, remains open until the November 30th (and now features Ballard as a represented artist). An e-catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
Visit the artist's page on our website (containing a few select works, a bio, and CV), and stay tuned for her solo exhibition opening in Long-Sharp Gallery Virtual later this month.
Image: Who’s Your Mama? © Lavett Ballard