Lezley Saar


Lezley Saar is a mixed-media artist and painter. Her artwork deals with themes of identity, race, gender, beauty, normalcy, and sanity. She has exhibited internationally, and nationally, and her work is included in museum collections such as The Kemper Museum, CAAM, The Ackland Art Museum, and MOCA. She is currently represented by Walter Maciel Gallery in Los Angeles.

Early life

Lezley Irene Saar was born in Los Angeles to artist parents. Her mother Betye Saar, is an African-American assemblage artist and her father Richard Saar, was a ceramist and art restorer. She has two sisters, Alison and Tracye. When Saar was 18, she moved to Paris to attend the L'Institut Francais de Photographie.
While attending San Francisco State University, she worked at KPFA radio in Berkeley, and did illustrations for writers such as Ishmael Reed. She received her B.A. from California State University at Northridge in 1978.

Artistic career

Saar began making altered books when she was pregnant with her first child in 1989. She exhibited at the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles and the David Beitzel Gallery in New York the 1990s.
Combining found objects, paint, and fabric, Saar’s work comments on themes of “hybridity, acceptance, and belonging.” Saar’s work is narrative, often inspired by literature or historical figures. She stated, “I like the idea of a painting sucking you in like when you really get sucked in by a good book…I use that kind of metaphor as a vehicle for doing my art."
Saar is the recipient of the California State Senate Contemporary Art Collection award, the J. Paul Getty Mid-Career Grant, and the Seagram’s Gin Perspective in African American Art Fellowship.

Exhibitions