Ward was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States with his family at age twelve, initially settling in New Jersey. While trying to find his place in a new culture, in school he drew and presented a replica of a Santa Claus image. His classmates quickly identified him as an artist—a designation he soon embraced. At the School of Visual Arts, he studied for three semesters until his student loans ran out. He then worked for a photograph retoucher, whose studio was near Hunter College. He decided to take art classes at Hunter, and went on to pursue his MFA at Brooklyn College. While in graduate school, he lived in the Bronx and regularly spent the night in his Brooklyn studio to avoid the commute. He began scavenging for art materials in his building’s basement, which fueled his first experiments in sculptures made from found objects.

In 1992, after completing his MFA, Ward moved to Harlem. He was soon awarded a residency at the Studio Museum. A year later, he presented work at the Forty-Fifth Venice Biennale. He has lived and worked in Harlem for decades, and his attachment to the neighborhood undergirds his work. Through accumulating discarded items such as shoelaces, baby strollers, and rum bottles from his surroundings, he explores locally and culturally specific objects, mining their layered references to different periods and concerns throughout history. His work addresses topics such as the AIDS and crack-cocaine epidemics of the 1990s that disproportionately affected Black communities; immigrants’ relationship to democracy and liberty; and the visual culture of the African diaspora.

Ward earned a BA from Hunter College and MFA from Brooklyn College. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship (1992); Rome Prize, American Academy of Rome (2012); and Joyce Award, the Joyce Foundation (2015). The Studio Museum has presented his work in Passages: Contemporary Art in Transition (1999); 30 Seconds off an Inch (2009); and Black: Color, Material, Concept (2015). Ward’s work first entered the Studio Museum permanent collection in 1997.