IN CONVERSATION: Austin Ballard + Nadia Haji Omar
Opening Reception, Friday, January 20, from 6 to 8 PM
Virtual Artist Talk, Saturday, March 25, at 10 AM via Zoom
This series of exhibitions is about starting a conversation – between two artists, and with the viewer. We invited an artist partner to ask another artist that inspires them to exhibit their work together. In Conversation captures the exchange between two practicing artists that illuminates the parallels they recognize in their work and beyond.
Austin Ballard, a Charlotte-born and New York-based sculptor, works with woven cane and extruded epoxy clay to craft objects with spontaneous structures, meandering shapes, and camouflaging shells.
Nadia Haji Omar, an artist of Syrian, Indian, and Sri Lankan descent based in Rhode Island, creates works on paper and paintings that are meditative and improvisational accumulations of small gestures built upon each other.
While both artists’ work differs in their mark-making and materiality, Austin and Nadia’s lyrical approach to imagery, with no clear beginning or end, allows the eye to abandon outcome.
Installation images by Lydia Bittner-Baird.
Nadia Haji Omar’s artwork images courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, photos: Charles Benton.
NADIA HAJI OMAR
Blue Star, 2018
Acrylic and ink on bleedproof paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
NADIA HAJI OMAR
ர் / R, 2020
Ink and dye on paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
NADIA HAJI OMAR
Green and Brown, 2018
Ink and acrylic on bleedproof paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
AUSTIN BALLARD
Hyper-Vent II, 2022
Synthetic cane webbing, epoxy clay, stained pine
68 x 60 x 1.25 inches
8000
AUSTIN BALLARD
Perforator II, 2022
Cane webbing and epoxy clay
34 x 34 x 20 inches
7000
NADIA HAJI OMAR
December, 2017
Ink and graphite on paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
NADIA HAJI OMAR
What!?, 2022
Ink and graphite on paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
AUSTIN BALLARD
Perforator III, 2022
Cane webbing and epoxy clay
32 x 24 x 18 inches
4000
NADIA HAJI OMAR
١ (waahid), 2019
Acrylic and dye on canvas
16 x 16 inches
4500
NADIA HAJI OMAR
L, 2022
Ink, acrylic, and colored pencil on paper
8.5 x 5.5 inches (paper), 11.25 x 13.25 inches (framed)
1800 framed
NADIA HAJI OMAR
Grass, 2022
Ink, acrylic, colored pencil, graphite on paper
8 x 6 inches (paper), 11.25 x 13.25 inches (framed)
1800 framed
NADIA HAJI OMAR
Bluebells, 2022
Ink, acrylic, colored pencil, graphite on paper
8 x 6 inches (paper), 11.25 x 13.25 inches (framed)
1800 framed

AUSTIN BALLARD
Lives and works in Ridgewood, NY
(b. 1987)
Born in Charlotte, NC, Ballard 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 Scholarship, a Windgate Foundation Fellowship, a Kenneth Stubbs Endowed Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, the Chenven Foundation Grant and the Rhode Island School of Design Graduate Studies Grant. He has been awarded full fellowships to the Museum of Arts and Design, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Ox-Bow School of Art, the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project, and the McColl Center for Art + Innovation. Ballard has been featured in Maake Magazine, Art Maze Magazine, Wall Street International and Wide Walls. Ballard has held solo exhibitions at Smack Mellon, NY, Wave Hill, NY, Napoleon, PA, Real Art Ways, CT, and Ithaca College among others. Upcoming shows include Mckenzie Fine Art in New York, NY and Whitespace in Atlanta, GA. He currently lives and works in Ridgewood, NY.

NADIA HAJI OMAR
Lives and works in Rhode Island
(b. 1985)
Nadia Haji Omar is a multimedia artist who explores issues related to the human mind, body and environment. She often combines the practices of painting, drawing, and photography. Her work investigates and visually addresses the philosophical and physiological challenges of the human condition. Haji Omar is of Syrian, Indian, and Sri Lankan descent. Haji Omar received a MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2014 and a BA from Bard College. Her works have been discussed in New York Magazine/Vulture, and Hyperallergic, among other publications, and are included in the collections of the RISD Museum, Providence, RI, and the Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, MO, among others.
NADIA HAJI OMAR
Red and Blue, 2019
Watercolor and acrylic on paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
AUSTIN BALLARD
Perforator I, 2022
Cane webbing and epoxy clay
32 x 21 x 24
7000
NADIA HAJI OMAR
Square font, 2020
Ink and graphite on paper
12 x 9 inches (paper), 17 x 14 inches (framed)
2800 framed
AUSTIN BALLARD
Where do you Stay? (Lighting in 7 Parts, Closed Cane), 2019
Cane webbing, wood, brass chain, aluminum, epoxy clay, electrical components
94 x 23 x 23 inches
7000
NADIA HAJI OMAR
٦ (sitta), 2019
Acrylic and dye on canvas
24 x 24 inches
7000
