The 33rd Annual Alain Locke Awards

The Detroit Institute of Arts’ Friends of African and African American Art Auxiliary will honor multimedia artist Alison Saar with the 33rd annual Alain Locke Award on February 22nd, 2026. Saar was born in Los Angeles, California in 1956. She earned her BA in art and art history in 1978 from Scripps College in Claremont, CA. She received her MFA from the Otis Art Institute of the Parson’s School of Design in Los Angeles in 1981. Her career took off in the mid-1980s while she was an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Saar grew up with a wide array of artistic influences, including the assemblage works of her mother, artist Betye Saar, the techniques and restoration practices of her father, ceramicist and conservator, Richard Saar, and frequent exposure to art books and museums. She repurposes found materials such as wood, bronze, soil, and kitchen pans, in her sculptures and installations. Saar combines these materials with references to African, African American, Latin American and Haitian cultures and religions to explore issues of race, gender, and identity throughout her oeuvre.

Left: portrait of Alison Saar by Maddy Inez; Right: Alison Saar, Blood/Sweat/Tears, 2005, wood, copper, bronze, paint and tar. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund, 2011.2.