Body n Soul: Race, Identity and Healing in the Work of Alison Saar with Alison Saar
Department: Art History
Date and Time: May 29, 2018 | 11:00 AM-12:30 PMEvent Location: HG 1030
Event Details
Daughter of acclaimed African-American collagist and assemblage artist Betye Saar, and Richard Saar, a painter and art conservator, Alison Saar grew up curious and inspired by other cultures.
Saar studied studio art and art history at Scripps College in Claremont, California, receiving a BA in art history in 1978. In 1981 she earned her MFA from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. In 1983, Saar became an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, incorporating found objects from the city environment. Since then, Saar has exhibited nationally and internationally, and recently had a show at LA Louver Gallery in Los Angeles that focused on works created in response to and re-appropriation of the figure of Topsy from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Saar’s style encompasses a multitude of personal, artistic, and cultural references that reflect the plurality of her own experiences. Her sculptures, installations, and prints incorporate found objects including rough-hewn wood, old tin ceiling panels, nails, shards of pottery, glass, and urban detritus. The resulting figures and objects become powerful totems exploring issues of gender, race, heritage, and history. Saar’s art is included in museums and private collections across the U.S.
Cosponsored by the UCI Medical Humanities Initiative, Art History Department, and African American Studies Department