Lyall Harris holds a BA in Art History from Northwestern University (Phi Beta Kappa) and an MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing (Poetry) from Mills College as the inaugural graduate in the nation’s first MFA of this kind.
Lyall’s artwork has been widely exhibited and recognized with numerous awards, including the The George Hitchcock Prize for painting from the National Academy Museum (NY) and a Purchase Award in Book Art from the University of Utah for a fifteen-book, site-specific project.
Her book art can be found in many Special Collection libraries and museums across the United States, including those at Yale, Stanford, Indiana University, Smith College, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, SCAD, the University of Washington, and in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Her painting has been in solo and group exhibitions across the US and in Italy and France in venues such as Purdue University, Creative Arts Workshop, National Art League, National Academy Museum, Maryland Federation of Art, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, City College of San Francisco, Cartavetra, Atelier Vis-à-Vis, and many others. Lyall has been the recipient of fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, NALL Foundation in Vence, France, and San Francisco’s Grabhorn Institute. Her artwork has additionally been featured in literary magazines, including La Petite Zine, Plain China, Whurk, and Generations.
Her poetry and prose poetry have appeared in The New Guard, The Minnesota Review, The Vincent Brothers Review, The Perch Magazine, The Dewdrop, High Shelf Press, Prose Online, Drunk Monkeys, The Raw Art Review, The Prose Poem Project and elsewhere, and her creative nonfiction has been featured in The Montréal Review. Her book-length poem Barrier Island was shortlisted for the 2020 Anne Sexton Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Black Spring Press Group; also forthcoming is a collection of poetry, titled Enough, from UnCollected Press. Her work was First Runner-up for the Doug Draime Prize for Poetry (2020) and she was a New Guard BANG! Selected Writer (2016). Her writing has been a finalist in many writing contests, including The Bunchgrass Poetry Prize, The Briar Cliff Review Poetry Contest, The River Styx International Poetry Contest, The Ruth Stone Poetry Prize, The Charles Bukowski Prize for Poetry, and Glimmer Train Press Very Short Fiction Award; she was the Runner-up for the Mary Merritt Henry Prize in Poetry. Lyall was the co-founding editor of the literary and art journal The Sigh Press (2014-2019) in Florence, Italy.
Lyall’s inaugural documentary short film, An Undoing (2024), has been included in nearly a dozen festivals since its premier and has been recognized with several awards.
Themes in Harris’ work include motherhood, relationships, and the everyday.
Lyall teaches book art, letterpress, and creative writing workshops and classes, most recently at James Madison University, the University of Virginia, and at the Virginia Center for the Book. Her book art is represented by Vamp & Tramp Booksellers.
She is engaged in community work with Beloved Community Cville where she serves on the Advisory Board, and with Hospice of the Piedmont where she is a certified End-of-Life Doula.
Lyall is happy to be back home in Virginia after 30 years on other coasts and continents.
Selected exhibitions:
- Perceptions, Sticks Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA, 2024 – solo exhibition (printmaking)
- Power of Plenty, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA, 2024 – group exhibition (book art & printmaking)
- Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women, Maier Museum 112th Annual Exhibition, Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA, 2023-24 – group exhibition (book art)
- Bound Visions, Beverley Street Studio Gallery, Staunton, VA, 2023 – group exhibition (book art & printmaking)
- Freed Formats: The Book Reconsidered, traveling exhibition, 2019: Mark Twain Library (Redding, CT); Ridgefield Guild of Artists (CT); Ridgefield Library (CT); Putnam Arts Council (Mahopac, NY); Mahopac Public Library (NY); Five Points Gallery (Torrington, CT); University of Hartford Art School (CT) – group exhibition (book art)
- Visions of the Built Environment: The Book as Place, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA , 2019- group exhibition (book art)
- Women’s Work, Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 2018/2019 – group exhibition (book art)
- The Interpreted Object / L’oggetto interpretato, Galleria Cartavetra, Florence, Italy (2018) – two-person collaborative exhibition (book art installation)
- Opulence, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, 2018 – group exhibition (book art)
- Winter Flame, Book Art at Barrister Books, Staunton, VA, 2017 – solo exhibition (book art)
- Meeting Places / Luoghi d’incontro: Collaborative Bookworks by Lyall Harris & Patricia Silva, JMRL, Crozet, VA & San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA, 2017 – two-person collaborative exhibition (book art and installation)
- Passato Prossimo, with Patricia Silva, SRISA Gallery, Florence, Italy, 2017 – two-person collaborative exhibition (book art, sculpture and installation)
- Book Project International, Atelier Vis-à-Vis, Marseilles, France, 2016 – group exhibition (book art)
- 20/20 Vision: Celebrating the Next Generation of Book Artists, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA, 2016 – group exhibition (book art)
- Just One Look, An Exhibition of Contemporary Book Arts: Exploring the theme of Women and Vision, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2016 – group exhibition (book art)
- The Artist’s Book: Where Concept Meets Object, Virginia Arts of the Book Center, Charlottesville, VA, 2016 – solo exhibition (book art)
- Ruvidezze, Cartavetra, Florence, Italy, 2015 – group exhibition (painting)
- Book Arts Preview, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH, 2015 – group exhibition (book art)
- Present[ation] Public[ation] Install[ation], University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 2014 – group exhibition (book art)
- Ideation by Chance, Donna Seager Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, 2013 – group exhibition (book art)
- Cave Paper 2012, Minnesota Center for Book Arts & Saint Paul Public Library, Minneapolis, MN, 2012 – group exhibition (book art)
- CBAA BiblioTech, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA, 2012 – group exhibition (book art)
Press
Views, “The Meaning of Book Arts” (pgs 15-19), Virginia Humanities (2019)
“Winter Flame” at Barrister Books (2019)
Books in the Wild, an interview with Keri Schroeder (2017)