IWAN BALA

Mae gwaith Iwan Bala, sydd wedi ennill sawl gwobr, wedi canolbwyntio’n ddiweddar ar ddiwylliant y Gymraeg a’i llenyddiaeth, gyda barddoniaeth, emynau ac anthemau’n cymryd lle canolog yn ei waith crai, uniongyrchol a llawn testun.
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Iwan Bala’s multiple award winning practice has recently centred around the culture of Cymraeg and its literature, with poetry, hymns and anthems taking centre stage in his raw, immediate and text-heavy work.

  • Iwan Bala is an established artist, writer and lecturer based in Wales. Bala has exhibited widely, with works in private and numerous public collections including the National Museum of Wales [The Derek Williams Collection], Contemporary Art Society for Wales and The National Library of Wales. He has published books and essays on contemporary art in Cymru and is a frequent lecturer on the subject.

    He studied geography and politics at the University of Aberystwyth from 1974, then from 1975 until 1977 he studied fine art at Cardiff College of Art. He gained an MA in fine art from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff in 1993. From 2007 to 2015 Bala was senior lecturer at the School of Creative Arts and Humanities at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Carmarthen.

    Bala creates his art-work using memorised and imagined maps and landscapes, commenting on Welsh culture. He has won many prizes including the Gold Medal in Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1997 (and a prize winner in 1988, 1989 and 1993). He won the Glyndŵr Award in 1998, for outstanding contributions to the arts in Wales. He has also been recipient of grants from the Arts Council of Wales, including a travel grant to visit Zimbabwe in 1990, research funding for "Certain Welsh Artists", a collection of essays published by Seren Books in 1999 and a Career Development Grant (printmaking) 2001. He was also awarded a Wales Art International travel grant to Galicia in 2004 and Brittany in 2007

  • Despite their implied certainty, the meanings they contain are in constant flux - there is often a subtext, an error in translation, gaps, omissions, terra incognita, which is open to interpretation. - Iwan Bala

GWEITHIAU CELF • ARTWORKS

  • KIOSK is a dedicated space for editions, objects and publications from both gallery and invited artists.

Iwan Bala, Ar Bapur | TEN. | The Coach house | Cardiff

  • Newyddion diweddaraf am yr artist hwn

    The latest news about this artist

Tigers & Dragons: ‘Mappa Mundi – Carta Fragmentada’ by Iwan Bala goes on display in Glyn Vivian Gallery.
Image curtesy of the Derek Williams Trust