Margo Sawyer

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to present, Margo Sawyer: Synchronicity, an exhibition of new wall dependent sculpture and works on paper by the celebrated artist. The artworks in the exhibition are from Synchronicity of Color, an ongoing series by the artist for the past twenty-five years. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 11th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Margo Sawyer’s artistic practice investigates the relationship between space and transcendence; the places where architecture and ritual converge to encourage a state of contemplation within the viewer. The central actor in Sawyer’s work is color. With an array of complex and unexpected unions of color and optical play, she explores how transparency, reflectivity, luminosity, physicality, materiality, perception have a psychological effect of color as a window into our spiritual world.

“Many of my artworks are entitled Synchronicity of Color, taking its name from Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences. Synchronistic events reveal an underlying pattern, a conceptual framework, like a quilt. My art unites color; a metaphor that celebrates and honors our multicultural/multidimensional world. As the niece of lauded Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas, I use color as a visual clue to my own multi-racial, multi- cultural heritage.”

Sawyer’s practice also bridges site-specific installations and public art to transform mundane architectural structures into euphoric icons, join exquisite objects and materials into domestic spaces and turn large public spaces into intimate refuges. Sawyer’s most celebrated works are Synchronicity of Color, Red & Blue (2008) at Discovery Green in Houston, Texas. These works transform two utilitarian structures into jubilant quilts of color, where the scale and physicality of colors draw you in­. The two works were honored in Public Art in Review (2009) by America for the Arts & Public Art Network, for exemplary commitment and leadership in the field of public art, and the works soon became an icon for the city of Houston. Sawyer has created many public artworks in cities such as Austin, Dallas, Houston, London, New York City, Indianapolis, and San Antonio.

Margo Sawyer received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2018), was appointed the Texas State Three-Dimensional Visual Artist Laureate (2015) was awarded the Dora Maar Fellowship (2016) from the Brown Foundation & the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has also been an Artist-In-Residence at Pilchuck Glass School (2001, 2013), was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2001), a Japan Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship (1996), two Fulbright Research Awards – a Senior Research Fellowship to Japan (1995-96) and to India (1982-83), the Rome Prize (1986-87), and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Individual Artists (1987).

Her work has also been included in many exhibitions at institutions such as; Art Museum of South Texas (2022), San Antonio Museum of Art (2020), El Paso Museum of Art (2015), the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum (2014), The McNay Museum of Art (2010), The Blanton Art Museum (2008), Austin Museum of Art (2005), Blaffer Art Museum (2004), Mattress Factory (2001), ArtPace (2000), Austin Museum of Art (1998), Sagacho Exhibit Space (1996),  GalleryGallery Kyoto (1996), and PS1 Museum (1989).

Sawyer was born in the U.S., although her formative years were in England. She received a B.A. Honors Degree (1980) from University of the Arts London/Chelsea College of Art, formerly the Chelsea School of Art, London and received her M.F.A. in Sculpture from Yale University (1982). She is the Jack G. Taylor Regents Professor in Fine Art and Professor of Sculpture and Extended Media in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has been a part of the faculty since 1988. She currently resides in Elgin, Texas.

Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1845 E. Levee St. #100 in Dallas, TX 75207. Gallery hours are 11 to 5, Tuesday through Saturday. The gallery is a founding member of CADD - Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas. For more information email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com or visit www.hollyjohnsongallery.com.