Sea Change | Michal Sagar

“Sea Change transforms the static gallery space into a metaphoric place where we become participants plunged into a world. There is a wildness here. An untamed turbulence rich in awe, danger, and beauty.” — Wayne Roosa, Art Historian/Artist

Drawings and sculptures of multiple materials, processes, and scale fill Sagar’s installation with images of the restless ocean, a shadow of a postmenopausal killer whale, children, and a figure shaped by supple reeds—suggesting transparency and shifting perspectives.

Artist Statement:
Sea Change was initially spurred by a story I read about the purposeful life of a postmenopausal killer whale. I learned that at that rare stage of life, she shares her accumulated experience for survival to guide a new generation. From this kernel of information, I envisioned a metaphoric connection between my life as a long-lived artist with that of the whale and took inspiration from the foresight this species demonstrated.

I began drawing images of a critically changing sea, composed from different perspectives of tumultuous waves — not specifically how waves exist in nature, but raging waters that hover in the imagination. Experimenting on small pieces of Dura-Lar, I then moved to large sheets of paper with graphite, charcoal, oil paint, wax, sand, and oil sticks. I drew until the arching movement of the churning waves achieved a resonance, yet remained — in their own way — unknowable waters.

Animating an interplay between artist and whale, I constructed an abstract female form made of reeds. The process was largely intuitive, following the natural curves of the material and mirroring the gestural movement in the drawings. Through the intricate and delicate reeds, openings allow for glimpses from all directions. Beneath runs a long dark shape appearing as a shadow — not of her — but of a killer whale. This shadow on the ground, nearly three times bigger than the reed figure, is textured with brushstrokes and covered in graphite.

The whale shadow and figure face two drawings at the back of the gallery, in which children now enter as subjects in the choppy waves. Two young girls play spiritedly while a young girl and boy hold each other tenderly, all surrounded by moving water. The children’s vulnerability is evident within this charged environment. I invested these dangerous moments that appeared in the work with a sense of caring, a desire to protect these vulnerable creatures.

The installation itself came to me as if it were a myth. Images influencing each other — the power of the ocean, a female killer whale, an enigmatic figure of reeds, and children. I wanted to communicate the experience of this vision — its turbulence, fragility, and waking concern for future life.

About the Artist:
MICHAL SAGAR is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersections of memory, history, and identity through drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation. Based in Minneapolis, Sagar has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and internationally. Above all, Sagar’s practice is anchored in drawing.

Born and educated in the United States, Sagar earned her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute, recently retiring as the Chair of the Visual Arts Department at Breck School in Minneapolis.

Influenced by the exchange between personal history and collective narratives, her practice incorporates complex material processes that open an evocative presence, as seen in her most recent solo exhibitions, Sight Between (2024), What Remains (2022), and A Fertile Emptiness (2018) at Form+Content Gallery.

Gallery Hours:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 12:00 – 6:00 pm and by appointment
Free and open to the public

Image: Sea Change, graphite, charcoal, oil paint, wax, sand, and oil stick on paper, 40” x 60”, 2026