Alison Saar

press release: February 1-April 6, 2019. Reception: Friday, February 1, 2019; 5-7pm.

Tandem Press Apex Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm; Saturday, 12-4pm

Tandem Press is pleased to present a new exhibit, Alison Saar: Printmaker, at the Tandem Press Apex Gallery. Featuring a selection of limited edition fine art prints created at Tandem Press by Los Angeles-based sculptor and printmaker Alison Saar.

Alison Saar’s sculptures, assemblages, and prints meditate on a range of experiences related to the African diaspora as well as her personal encounters with racism, sexism, and ageism. Referencing African, Caribbean, and Latin American folk art and spirituality in her work, Saar often alludes to fabled narratives or rituals that help shape personal notions of history and identity.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Alison Saar received her bachelor's degree from Scripps College and her master of fine arts degree from the Otis College of Art and Design. She grew up in an artistic environment with her mother, Betye Saar, an artist, and her father, Richard Saar, an illustrator and art conservator. She has been selected for many residencies including the Studio Museum in Harlem and has received several distinguished honors including awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her work can be found in numerous museum collections including the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Alison Saar has been working with Tandem Press since 2014, and over the past several years she has primarily used woodcut printmaking techniques to create limited edition fine art prints in the Tandem Press studio. In addition to printing on paper, Saar often employs used fabrics, such as vintage handkerchiefs, old shop rags, and antique sugar sacks, as the support for her printed images. These found materials amplify the content and concept within Alison Saar’s imagery and resist elements of the repetitive nature of the printmaking medium. Alison Saar: Printmaker will present a survey view of the prints, both on paper and on fabric, that Alison Saar created in the Tandem Press studio along with a small selection of the woodcut blocks and other ephemera remaining from the production of these artworks.

Alison Saar is the recipient of the Southern Graphics Council International’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement in Printmaking Award. She will be honored with this award in March 2019 at the annual SGCI Conference, and we are thrilled to present this exhibition at Tandem Press in acknowledgement of this award and Alison Saar’s remarkable career.

This exhibition, along with all of the Tandem Press Apex Gallery exhibition programming, is made possible through support from the Anonymous Fund.