Los Angeles-based artist and 2025 Driskell Prize Recipient, Alison Saar – whose sculptures, installations and prints are deeply rooted in the African diaspora, Black female identity, and global spiritual traditions, and have been displayed at, among other institutions, the Obama Presidential Center, LACMA, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art – plumbs her own psychological depths only to discover what makes her love work and life.
What historical art figure would you like to have lunch with and why? I would say Elizabeth Catlett because she was both fierce and compassionate.
What did you purchase with the proceeds from your first sale? Probably candy. I was about 7 years old when I sold my first work at the Barnsdall annual art festival.
Queen of the Boneyard
What words or phrases do you overuse? Whatchama!
How do you know when a work is finished? When I have nothing else to offer it.
Silted Brow
When and where were you happiest? Summer of 2015, night swimming in a pond in Maine engulfed by stars.
What is your most treasured possession? A soap sculpture made by my father when he was a child.
Where is your ideal escape destination? That pond in Maine.
What’s the worst survival job you’ve ever had? Waitressing in lower Manhattan. I was hired and fired the same day.
Citizen Cane
What TV series from your youth best describes your approach to life? The Addams Family.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? To be a stronger advocate for those in need.
What is your most treasured memory? Showing my kids how to swim in the sea.
What makes you smile? Cute crittters.
Hygiea
What makes you cry? All the suffering and hatred in the world today.
What is your go-to drink when you toast to a sale? Negroni.
After an all-nighter, what’s your breakfast of champions? It has been some time since pulling an all nighter, but used to hit Canter’s for 4am potato latkes.
Who inspires you? My mother, Betye, who hits 100 this summer.
Razin’ Cane, Photo by Matt Emonson
What’s your best quality? I aspire to be kind
What’s your biggest flaw? My desire to be invisible.
What is your current state of mind? A mixture of anger and despair.
Mutiny of the Sable Venus
What do you consider your greatest achievement? My Harriet Tubman monument, Swing Low, in Harlem.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be? A siren.
Cover image: Self-portrait; all images courtesy the artist. Alison Saar is the Signature Artist of the Venice Family Clinic Art + Auction, May 8-17, and is represented by LA Louver; visit the artist at IG.
