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Contemporary artist discusses career at Blaffer event

analia-saban

Saban’s work has been exhibited in the U.S. and Europe. | Courtesy of Javier Sánchez Martínez

Argentinian artist Analia Saban joined Javier Sánchez Martínez, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell curatorial fellow, in a conversation about her practice and artwork at the Blaffer Art Museum Wednesday.

The discussion focused on Saban’s art over the past 10 years. The artist explained how her work shows the importance of painting, the idea of how one defines a medium and the connection between painting and the human body.

“I feel there is almost a hidden power in painting that as a hypothesis it might relate to the human body,” Saban said. “I am just trying to understand why a painting is so important and why we care so much for it.”

Saban has been influential in how her audience thinks about these mediums, Sánchez Martínez said, in terms of how we define and look for them.

“The conversation at Blaffer (is) part of an ongoing series we have to present artists and scholars,” said Katherine Veneman, the curator of education at Blaffer Art Museum.

Saban wants her audience to have a broader understanding of art and question the definitions of paintings and sculptures while discovering how the history of materials in art can relate to human history.

Through the use of different materials like kitchen and bathroom countertops in her work, Saban also refers to social issues.

“I think an important question in Analia’s work is how her work relates to social aspects (like) questions of gender, labor and social history,” Sánchez Martínez said.

Saban’s interest in art began when first visited New York City at 19 years old. She realized how important art museums were to the city, and this inspired her to major in art at Loyola University in New Orleans.

Saban later received her master’s degree at University of California, Los Angeles.

“I felt that the art was the soul of the city, and I wanted to participate in that,” Saban said.

Saban’s artwork is on display in an exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum through Mar. 18, 2017.

“I want mainly for students to know that they can do whatever they want when it comes to artwork and that there are really no limits,” Saban said.

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