The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College presents mixed media works by sisters Alison and Lezley Saar, March 28 through April 16. The exhibit, drawn from Southern California collections, is part of the gallery’s new series that focuses on contemporary women artists. The gallery is located at 11th Street and Columbia Avenue.
An opening reception at the gallery on Saturday, March 25 from 7-9 p.m. will include live music and hors d’oeuvres. In addition, the Saars will give a lecture on their art on April 5 at 4:30 p.m. in the Scripps Malott Commons, at Ninth Street and Columbia Avenue. Both events and exhibitions are free and open to the public.
The daughters of well-known assemblage sculptor Betye Saar and art conservator Richard Saar, the Saar sisters are showing their work together for the fist time. Featured are sculptures by Alison Saar from 1989 to the present; they include both full and partial figures and reveal her interest in the expressive potential of the human body. In contrast are Lezley Saar’s painted wall works, from 1993 to the present, including several from her "Anomalies" series, which, she explains, explore "human oddities, outcasts, and misfits.the outcasts of our social norm." Combining old books or swap-meet paintings, Lezley Saar uses found objects to express the lives of those whom society stigmatizes as outsiders.