Lezley Irene Saar is an African American artist whose artwork is responsive to race, gender, female identity, and her ancestral history. Her works are primarily mixed media, 3-dimensional, and oil & acrylic on paper and canvas. Through her artistic practice Lezley explores western and non-western concepts of beauty, femininist psychology and spirituality. Many works conjure elements of magical realism. She has exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. Her work is included in museum collections such as The Kemper Museum, CAAM, The Ackland Art Museum, the Smith College Museum of Art, the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

and MOCA. She is currently represented by Walter Maciel Gallery in Los Angeles and Various Small Fires in Asia.

Early life

Lezley Irene Saar was born into a family of artists in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Her mother

Betye Saar Betye Irene Saar (born July 30, 1926) is an African-American artist known for her work in the medium of assemblage. Saar is a visual storyteller and an accomplished printmaker. Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, which eng ...

(née Brown), is an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

assemblage artist and her father Richard Saar, was a ceramist and art conservator. She grew up surrounded by art; her mother's first studio was the family kitchen table. She has two sisters, visual artist Alison and writer, Tracye Saar. Lezley and Alison occasionally collaborate when they find their current interests collide. In 1972 Saar enrolled at the L'Institut Francais de Photographie in Paris, which influenced her use of portrait imagery. She continued her studies in 1976 at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, and supported her artistic practice by working a
KPFA
radio in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

, and creating illustrations for Bay area writers such as

Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is '' M ...

. She received her B.A. from

California State University at Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge, Los Angeles, Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it h ...

in 1978.

Artistic career

Drawing on her experience working for Ishmael Reed and exposure to Bar area literary scene Saar's constructed altered books in 1989, which she created while pregnant with her first child in 1989. She exhibited at the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles and the David Beitzel Gallery in New York the 1990s. Employing found objects, oil, acrylic, fabric, photographs, Saar’s work is a comment on themes of "hybridity, acceptance, and belonging." Many works are narratives of African American literature and historical figures. She stated, "I like the idea of a painting sucking you in like when you really get sucked in by a good book…I use that kind of metaphor as a vehicle for doing my art." Lezley's work is both inspired by and a reaction to growing up in a family of artists, To work alongside her mother, sister and now daughter is a great privilege, one that inspired her interest in feminism, African American history, and biracial identity Her 2020 exhibition "A contouring of Conjourors" was an installation of works exploring the complexity of identity. Works are named, not titled. She stated the exhibition "resembles a series of seven shrines — sacred places where visitors may commune with spirits from the past, present and future." Saar is the recipient of the California State Senate Contemporary Art Collection award (2000), the

J. Paul Getty Jean Paul Getty Sr. (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, he was the son of pi ...

Mid-Career Grant (1996), and the Seagram’s Gin Perspective in African American Art Fellowship (1995).

Exhibitions

* 1990 "Altered Books," Art Works, Los Angeles, CA * 1991 "Altar(ed) Books," Koplin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA * 1993 "The Athenaeum," Koplin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA * 1994 "The Athenaeum II," Mesa College, San Diego, CA * 1994 "Recent Work", Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 1999 Anomalies", Fresno Museum of Art, Fresno, CA * 1997 New Work, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY * 1996 Repetitive Ritual", Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2000 "Works by Alison and Leslie Saar", Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA * 2000 "Africans, Tragic Mulattos, Anomalies and Rap" David Beitzel Gallery, NY * 2000 "Africans, Rap Thugs-n-Dimes", The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, traveled to the Saint Louis Museum, St. Louis, MO * 2000 "Paradox of the Unexpected Hanging", Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2003 "Anomalies", Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO * 2003 "Encyclopedia Exotica", David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY * 2003 "Africans, Rap Thugs-n-Dimes", Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO * 2003 "Mulatto Nation", List Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA *2018 Betye, Alison, and Lezley Saar", MOAH, Lancaster, CA * 2017 "Salon des Refusés", California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA * 2017 "Gender Renaissance", Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2014 "Monad", Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2012 "Madwoman in the Attic", Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2010. "Autist’s Fables", Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2007 "Tooth Hut", Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2007 "Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley & Alison Saar",

Palmer Art Museum The Palmer Museum of Art is the art museum of Pennsylvania State University, located on the University Park campus in State College, Pennsylvania. Collections The museum has an increasing permanent collection of more than 7,000 works. The colle ...

, University Park, PA * 2007 "Family Legacies", Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA and San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA * 2005 "Family Legacies",

Ackland Art Museum The Ackland Art Museum is a museum and academic unit of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded through the bequest of William Hayes Ackland (1855–1940) to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is located a ...

, Chapel Hill, NC * 2004 "Recent Work," Kravets/Wehby Gallery, New York, NY * 2004 "The Secret Self", Sawhill Gallery, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA * 2003 Mulatto Nation", Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2020 "A Conjuring of Conjurers", Walter Maciel Gallery, Culver City, CA

Publications

* Saar, Lezley. ''Yolanda and the Strange Objects.'' I Reed Books, 1978, * Taha, Halima. ''Collecting African American Art.'' Crown Publishers, 1998, * Dallow, Jessica. ''Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar.'' Chapel Hill: Ackland Art Museum, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in association with University of Washington Press, 2005, * Saar, Lezley. ''Autist's Fables.'' 2010. * Von Blum, Paul. ''Creative Souls: African American Artists in Greater Los Angeles.'' New World African Press, 2018, * Brown, Betty Ann. ''Memory and Identity: The Marvelous Art of Betye Lezley and Alison Saar.'' Griffith Moon Press, 2018,

References

External links

Official webpage
*Lezley Saa
Artnet
* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saar, Lezley 1953 births Living people 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists African-American women artists American women painters Artists from Los Angeles Assemblage artists California State University, Northridge alumni Mixed-media artists San Francisco State University alumni African-American painters 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American artists 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American artists