Alison Saar: The thread that leads to the word

Alison Saar was born in Los Angeles, California. She studied art and art history at Scripps College and received an MFA from the Otis Art Institute. She received the United States Artist Fellowship in 2012 and has also been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and two National Endowment Fellowships. Alison has exhibited at many galleries and museums, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her art is represented in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Baltimore Art Museum, the Modern Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A friend in Mali once told me my work was "the thread that led to the word". Meaning my work took the viewer to a place that could not be reached via a map. In my practice I hope to bring to light issues of race, gender and spirit that often defy definition and are often more easily understood through images and textures.

Drawing from Western mythologies and evoking spirits from the African diaspora, I aim to address issues of the present through historical events.