Margo Sawyer

Margo Sawyer's, Synchronicity of Color for Elgin, 2024, is built with Elgin Butler Brick, which Sawyer has wanted to work with since 2016, when she started to make studies for projects in New York City, Scottsdale, Arizonan and the City of Austin – all un-realized. Finally, Sawyer has been able to realize Synchronicity of Color for Elgin, with Sawyer’s signature specificity of geometry here she laying the bricks vertically. Elgin butler brick is one of the founding companies in Elgin Texas. Built in 1873 by Michael Butler the factory became famous for its extruded clay bricks that are glazed with ceramic color. Synchronicity of Color for Elgin, used fifty unique colors, the array of which makes the viewers eyes glide across each sections of the wall.  

Margo Sawyer’s artistic practice investigates the relationship between space and transcendence; the places where architecture and ritual converge to create transcendent qualities that encourage a state of contemplation within the viewer. She continues to research what makes a place sublime and focuses on creating immersive structures that foster an awareness of the contemplative.

Sawyer’s artistic practice bridges site-specific installations and public art to transform mundane architectural structures into euphoric icons, join exquisite objects that turn large public spaces into intimate refuges. Sawyer’s art unites the complex and unexpected, where the physical, material, perceptual, and psychological effects of color interact.

Her art unites color in a way that celebrates and honors our multicultural/multidimensional world. Sawyer states; 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 that of 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 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; Pristina in Kosovo, London, UK, Indianapolis, Indiana and New York City. And in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Victoria and Huntsville, Texas.

Sawyer has received numerous grants and awards including: Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018, the Dora Maar Fellowship from the Brown Foundation & the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Sawyer was honored by the 52nd Texas Legislator Honor Texas Artist Laureate.  Japan Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship, the Fulbright Research Fellowship (to India and Japan), the Rome Prize of the American Academy in Rome, National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Individual Artists, New York State Council for the Arts Grant for Public Art, , Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. Sawyer exhibits nationally and internationally in locations such as Japan, India, Italy, United Kingdom, and the United States, with solo exhibitions at Sagacho Exhibit Space in Tokyo, Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, P.S.1. Museum in Queens, and the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston.

Sawyer received her M.F.A from Yale University and a B.A. Honors Degree from Chelsea School of Art, London, UK. She is currently the Jack G. Taylor Regents Professor in Fine Art in the College of Fine Art at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has been a part of the faculty since 1988. She has resided in Elgin, Texas since 1998.

Sawyer is represented by Holly Johnson in Dallas, TX