Austin Ballard (b. Charlotte, NC) received an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, where he also served as an Assistant Professor in Textiles. Ballard has received numerous awards including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Sculpture Fellowship, a Windgate Foundation Fellowship, Kenneth Stubbs Endowed Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, a Dan Bown Project Award, and the Rhode Island School of Design Graduate Studies Grant. He has been awarded full fellowships to the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Ox-Bow School of Art, the Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project in New York, McColl Center for Art + Innovation and the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Great Britain. Ballard has exhibited in numerous exhibitions, some of which include McKenzie Fine Art, NY, Smack Mellon, NY, Field Projects, NY, Beers Contemporary, UK, Pentimenti, PA, David B. Smith, CO, and Mint Museum of Art, NC. He has also been included in institutional exhibitions at Brown University and Boston University. Provincetown Museum of Art, Ithaca College, University of North Texas, Broward College and the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently lives and works in Ridgewood, NY.