Alison Saar

Alison Saar is one of the most acclaimed contemporary artists practicing in the United States today. Her work evokes ancestors, African cultural traditions, the contemporary experiences of women – the significance of their hair – as well as the tropes of women and nature. Saar uses nature as metaphor in imagined intersections with the female body and frequently creates assemblages that transform found objects. Her career as an artist spans more than three decades. In addition, both her parents – Betye and Richard – and her sisters are artists.

Saar’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and her permanent site sculptures can be found across the nation, from Los Angeles to New York. She works primarily in sculpture but also incorporates prints, paintings, and works on paper in her practice, most often with a focus on the female form. Saar grapples with motherhood, the role of women, the intensity of their hearts and their embodiment as nature and its forces. This exhibition of new sculptures, mixed-media works, and prints, mounted by the Harvey B. Gantt Center, illumines these themes.