Oregon Arts Watch contributor Laurel Reed Pavic’s piece on Alison Saar is a comprehensive look at Saar’s latest project, Crepuscular Blue: Prints and Sculpture by Alison Saar from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.
The Jordan D. Schnitzer Exhibition and Visiting Artist Series presents an annual curated exhibition from the expansive collection of over 10,000 contemporary prints from the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation. The series brings an invited artist that a guest curator selects from the collection. The artist engages with PNCA students, faculty, and the public through lectures, studio visits, and collaborations with the Print Media department.
Currently at the school’s 511 Gallery, the Visiting Artist program features work from Alison Saar as well as the show’s curator, Paul Mullowney. Saar and Mullowney collaborated on three of the prints in the show during the summer of 2017 at Mullowney’s studio (Muddy Water, Topsy and the Golden Fleece, and Eclipse).
Mullowney and Saar were at PNCA in mid-September and worked on High Cotton alongside students in PNCA’s MFA program in Print Media. Saar gave a lecture at PNCA on September 19 as part of Schnitzer Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Crepuscular Blue continues at PNCA’s 511 Gallery through October 14.
“Saar’s work engages with racial stereotypes, American history, Modernist tropes, Greek mythology, and contemporary events with equal tact and finesse. Saar is the daughter of an artist but, in turn, she is the mother of artists. No element or identity is treated as more or less worthy of consideration in her work; all are of value,” writes Reed Pavic.
In Crepuscular Blue, 19 of Saar’s prints from Schnitzer’s extensive collection, and four sculptures and one woodcut from the L.A. Louver Gallery in Los Angeles were selected by the show’s curator, Paul Mullowney. Mullowney is a Master Printer and owner of Mullowney Printing Company in San Francisco.
Mullowney was already set to curate a show from Schnitzer’s collection when he met Saar and soon shifted his approach so that the show concentrated solely on her work.
“The results are powerful and thought-provoking. They are confrontational but approachable and memorable. And perhaps most worthy of awe is that she does it all with authenticity and grace: two qualities to which we should all aspire,” concludes writer Reed Pavic.
Alison Saar’s Crepuscular Blue continues at PNCA’s 511 Gallery, 511 NW Broadway, through October 14.