Iwan Bala has been a cornerstone of the Welsh art scene for over five decades. An established writer, lecturer, and artist, he was a founding member of the Beca group and has consistently advocated for an art that is "of the place" but global in its relevance. 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, 1993, and he won the Ivor Davies Award at the 2013 Eisteddfod). He won the Glyndŵr Award in 1998, for outstanding contributions to the arts in Wales.