Lavett Ballard, Ashe (So Be It), 2022, mixed media collage on reclaimed wood fencing, 71” x 29.5”, $8,000

​Lavett Ballard's work is grounded in personal memory, and is focused on the role of Black women in the US, including the obstacles they have encountered, the achievements they have made, and the memories they have stored. In addition to creating her compositions on traditional fine art surfaces, Ballard often uses reclaimed wooden fences as a support for her work, as a symbolic reference to how fences can keep people both in and out, just as racial and gender identities can do the same. In Ballard’s work, Black women throughout history appear as embodiments of grace, wisdom, and quiet perseverance, and are depicted as inheritors of our honor and respect. By re-inserting historic photographs into contemporary contexts and hand-embellishing them with a range of materials – metallic foils, abstract prints, burns – Ballard generates new narratives about Black women that bridge past and present.