Alison Saar (b. 1956)

Alison Saar is an acclaimed sculptor and printmaker whose work explores identity, heritage, and the resilience of the human spirit through powerful figurative imagery. Born in Los Angeles, California, Saar is the daughter of noted assemblage artist Betye Saar and painter-conservator Richard Saar. Growing up in a household steeped in art, history, and cultural inquiry profoundly shaped her visual language. She received her B.A. in art and art history from Scripps College (1978) and her M.F.A. from Otis Art Institute (1981), where she studied under Charles White, an artist whose humanistic approach left a lasting influence on her.

Saar’s work is grounded in the interplay of Black identity, history, and myth, drawing on African, Caribbean, and African American folk traditions, as well as Greek and Roman mythology and Southern vernacular forms. Her sculptures, installations, and prints often feature hybrid female figures, part goddess, part ancestor, part survivor, who embody both vulnerability and power. Materials such as wood, metal, and found objects lend her sculptures a tactile immediacy and a sense of reclamation, while her prints translate those narratives into bold graphic form.

Saar’s work has been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art (2021), the Figge Art Museum (2022), and the Blanton Museum of Art (2023). She has also participated in landmark group exhibitions such as Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980 (Hammer Museum, 2011) and Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power (Tate Modern, 2017). Her work is represented in major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Through her art, Alison Saar reclaims myth and history to articulate the enduring complexity, struggle, and beauty of the African American experience.