Alison Saar

American, born 1956

BiographyAlison Saar is a contemporary American artist whose work is inspired by her interest in history, identity, and African diaspora cultures. Born on February 5, 1956 in Los Angeles, CA, Saar earned a BA from Scripps College in 1978 and an MFA three years later from the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design). Saar uses the history and associations of her materials, everyday experience, African art and ritual, Greek mythology, and the stark sculptural tradition of German Expressionism to infuse her work with an intensity that challenges cultural and historic references and stereotypes.

Saar has had solo exhibitions at Hirshhorn Museum iWashington DC, the Brooklyn Museum, High Museum in Atlanta, OMI International Arts Center in Ghent, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Springfield Art Museum, UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History, and Santa Monica Museum of Art. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The New Museum in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Getty Center in Los Angeles, The Studio Museum in Harlem, among many other institutions. Saar has been awarded many distinguished grants, honors, and residencies including awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

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