Austin Ballard was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He received his 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, a Kenneth Stubbs Endowed Fellowship, a Chenven Foundation Grant, a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, the 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, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Ox-Bow School of Art, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project in New York, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Long Meadow and the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Great Britain. Ballard has exhibited in numerous exhibitions at McKenzie Fine Art, NY, Smack Mellon, NY, Wave Hill, NY, Whitespace, Pentimenti, PA, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, NY, GRIN, David B. Smith Gallery, Field Projects, Beers Contemporary, Rooster Gallery (NY), Napoleon (PA), and . He has also been included in exhibitions at Brown University, Provincetown Museum of Art, Chautauqua Institute, NY, Boston University, Mint Museum of Art, NC, Ithaca College, University of North Texas, Broward College and the Rhode Island School of Design. He has been featured in Maake Magazine, Art Maze Magazine, Wall Street International, Wide Walls and the New York Sun. He has served as visiting faculty at numerous institutions including, Anderson Ranch, Indiana University, University of North Carolina, Trinity College, Edinburgh College of Art, Ithaca College as well as a guest speaker at the NAEA conference from 2017-2022. He currently lives and works in Ridgewood, NY.