High Museum of Art names Alison Saar Recipient of 2025 David C. Driskell Prize

Saar, based in Los Angeles, is widely celebrated for her sculpture, installation and mixed-media works, which tell stories about the African American experience through references to American history, literature and mythology. Her works have been featured in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including at the High, which presented one of her first solo museum exhibitions, “Fertile Ground,” in 1993. She has work in collections at renowned institutions including the High, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others. In 2024, she was selected by the International Olympic Committee and the city of Paris to create “Salon,” a sculpture commissioned in honor of the 2024 Olympic Games, which is now permanently displayed in the Charles Aznavour Garden on the Champs-Élysées. Her installation “Soul Service Station” was featured as part of Desert X 2025 in Coachella Valley, California.

“Saar’s work delves deeply into the histories of the African diaspora and its artistic traditions, exploring how they influence and connect to cultural identity today. Her sculpture ‘Tobacco Demon’ has been a fixture in our galleries for decades,” said High Museum of Art Director Rand Suffolk. “We are honored to recognize her distinguished practice and myriad contributions to African American art with the 2025 Driskell Prize.”

Established by the High in 2005, the Driskell Prize is the first national award to celebrate a scholar or artist whose work makes an original and significant contribution to the field of African American art or art history. It was named for the renowned African American artist and scholar David C. Driskell, whose work on the African diaspora spanned more than four decades. Over its 20-year history, the Driskell Prize has recognized artists including Ebony G. Patterson (2023), Amy Sherald (2018), Mark Bradford (2016) and Rashid Johnson (2012). Proceeds from the Driskell Gala support the David C. Driskell African American Art Acquisition Restricted and Endowment funds, which have supported the acquisition of 52 works by African American artists for the High’s collection since the prize’s inception.

The selection process for the 2025 recipient of the Driskell Prize began with a call for nominations from a national pool of artists, curators, teachers, collectors and art historians. Saar was chosen from among these nominations by review committee members assembled by the High: artist and 2006 Driskell Prize recipient Willie Cole; Dr. Kellie Jones (2005 Driskell Prize recipient and professor in art history and archaeology and the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University); and two High Museum of Art curators, Kevin W. Tucker (chief curator) and Maria L. Kelly (assistant curator of photography).

“I am honored to have been chosen as the 2025 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize,” said Saar. “At a time when many of the civil rights milestones achieved by previous generations—by our mothers and grandmothers—are being threatened or dismantled, the Driskell Prize empowers Black artists and art historians to push back. When our art is removed from museum exhibitions or our shows are canceled, this prize offers not only validation, but also the support to continue making work that is courageous and truthful work that is often stifled by the limitations of mainstream institutions.”

In addition to the Driskell Prize, Saar has received many other grants and awards, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Art (2018), an Excellence in Design Award from the New York City Art Commission (2005) and numerous art fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College (Claremont, California) and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Main Image: Portrait by Nicholas Lea Bruno and courtesy of the artist.