Lezley Saar

In 'Edna Pontellier (The Awakening)', 2012, Saar reconfigures the Victorian archetype of the ‘madwoman in the attic’. A prominent figure in both Gothic literature and Colonial art, she is emblematic of nineteenth century anxieties about gender and racial equality. By bringing her out of the shadows into the visual realm of portraiture, Saar offers her a sense of agency and individuality of which she so often is denied. The use of surreal still-lifes and mixed materials not only render a Gothic atmosphere but also reflect the complex history of femininity and insanity.

Lezley Saar creates paintings, collages and installations that investigate themes of identity, gender and race. Her dreamlike portraits explore spaces of hybridity, between black and white, masculine and feminine, sanity and madness. Combining archival research with her own experience as a bi-racial woman, her subjects challenge conceived ideas of beauty and normality. Her distinctive visual language is derived from a canny use of unanticipated sources, and within her diverse character collection each portrait tells its own bewildering story. Saar’s relationship with her transgender son, who transitioned from female to male, was the starting point of her latest body of work.

Born 1953 in Los Angeles, CA, Saar received a B.A. from California State University at Northridge in 1978. In 1996 she received the J. Paul Getty Mid-Career Grant, and she has participated in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Saar’s work has been sold at Christie’s Auction House and is shown in museum collections including The Kemper Museum, CAAM, The Ackland Art Museum, and MOCA.