About

Margo Sawyer was born in the United States and brought up in England where she received most of her formal education. Sawyer studied foundation at the Brighton Polytechnic Faculty of Art and Design; she then received a B.A. Honors Degree from the Chelsea School of Art in London. Her interest in contemporary American art led her back to the United States. She attended the sculpture program at Yale University and received an M.F.A. in 1982.

Throughout her career, Sawyer has created installations which translate the notion of an ancient sacred space into a contemporary vocabulary. The artist is particularly interested in relationships between the experience of space and the experience of transcendence — and the ways in which the architectural and ritual converge to create a forum for contemplation and reflection. Recently, Sawyer’s practice has focused on creating large scale — often public — installations that combine her parallel interests in art and architecture.

Sawyer’s work has been exhibited both nationally in New York, Los Angeles, New Haven, Houston, Dallas, Austin and internationally in the United Kingdom, Italy, India and Japan. She is represented by Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas, Texas. In addition to her career as an artist, Sawyer is a Professor of Sculpture and Extended Media in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. Most recently, Sawyer was awarded the 2018 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.