MORAG BALLARD
Born in London in 1961, Morag Ballard studied initially at Chelsea School of Art, London (1981-2) where she first experimented with the interrelationships between two-dimensional and three-dimensional expressions of form.
This led her to study sculpture at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham Court (1982-5). Here she studied under Michael Pennie and Ken Hughes and came into contact with some of the leading British sculptors of the time – including Richard Deacon and Antony Gormley.
In 1983 she was awarded the Gane Trust Travel Scholarship for sculpture, taking her to Carrara, Italy.
On completing her degree, Morag Ballard was awarded a student internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice in 1986, where she found her direction validated by the study of works of the Russian Constructivists, the paintings of Jean Helion and the boxes of Joseph Cornell.
On her return to the UK she set up studio in South West Scotland where she began to develop her ideas through paintings, reliefs and boxed constructions – work which led to her first showing at England & Co. London in 1991.
After five years in Scotland, Morag moved to Penzance where her work was aesthetically in tune with the line of abstraction that had developed in Cornwall via Naum Gabo, Peter Lanyon and John Wells.