Lynda Ballen Biography


Lynda Ballen received a BA Fine Arts degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, and a MA (Arts Education) at New York University (1978).

She has worked extensively in art education, both at informal and formal teaching institutions (including Waverley Girls High School, King David and Damelin College) and is known particularly for her years of engagement with the Johannesburg Art Foundation (JAF).  Papermaker and teacher Lynda Ballen brought her burgeoning children’s studio to join the JAF in the early 1980s. She developed her programme to offer art as a matric subject for those unable to take it at their schools. The creative dynamics in the Foundation touched many. People came there to build up portfolios. They came there to seek succour from drugs. It was like a tiny piece of European zeitgeist: a sanctuary where you could draw and paint and write and listen and talk without the intervention of time or responsibilities.

Ballen held a solo exhibition, Concerning Preciousness, with David Krut Projects in October 2012. This was Ballen’s first solo exhibition in 20 years. In 2013 she worked with the David Krut Workshop to produce her Forever series, comprising of four unique works. Ballen also contributed to the group exhibition The Benediction of Shade II at David Krut Projects in 2014.

Ballen is currently committed to creative art-making practice alongside her studio teaching.

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