Eliana Saari

“My art is the result of my constant search for answers. The farther I am from all the things that I grew up knowing as every day occurrences, the more I question their meaning.”

Artist Statement

My art is the result of my constant search for answers. The farther I am from all the things that I grew up knowing as every day occurrences, the more I question their meaning. My life today is made of all those things that were and all the things that are.

I see life as constant changes that result from all of the things from the past, meeting the present. Printmaking, fabric, women, and the work produced by women’s hands are the elements I use in my work to explore the constant changes in my life.

Partially because I am not from the United States, my displacement makes the idea of losing one’s identity very haunting to me. Looking for, and understanding my roots, has become the force that drives me to make art. Distance makes things look different. The things that once were daily realities, all those things that make cultural traditions, are now fussy memories that seem so distant that it appears as if they had never happened. I believe that if I do not embrace these traditions, I will “fade away”.

Biography

I was born in Medellin, Colombia, South America. There, I received an Associates Degree in Fashion Design. Soon after, I moved to The United States and received a B.A. in Art and Spanish from Otterbein College, and a MFA in Printmaking from The Ohio State University

Over the past 20 years, I have split my time teaching and making art professionally. I am currently a faculty member of the art department at Ohio Dominican University. My work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2008, I was awarded the Artist in Residence Exchange in Dresden, Germany by the Ohio Arts Council. In 2016 and 2017 I received a printmaking award for my work in the Ohio State fair Fine Arts exhibition. Currently, I am a member of the Phoenix Rising Cooperative, in Columbus, Ohio.

Education

  • 2002 – M.F.A, Printmaking at The Ohio State University.
  • 2000 – Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Art, Otterbein College, Westerville,
    Ohio.
  • 1989 – Associate Degree in Fashion Design, Escuela de DiseƱo
    Proyectual, Medellin, Colombia.

Recent Exhibitions

  • 2006 – The Fifth Minesota National Print Biennial, The Katherine E. Nash Gallery & The Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, MN.
    – Curated by Ken Bloom, Director Tweed Museum of Art.
  • 2006 – “Growing Pains” Riffe Gallery. Columbus, Ohio.
    – Curated by Bellamy Printz.

Affiliations

  • Ohio Art League
  • Dayton Visual arts Center
  • Mid-American printmaking Council
  • Southern Graphics Council
  • American Print Alliance
  • Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative