Commissions

Joel Sager

Madonna and Child Joel Sager

Joel Sager, a native Missourian, completed his degree in fine art at William Jewell College near Kansas City. While there, he was selected to receive the Harriman Fine Arts Scholarship and was a four year recipient of the Carpe Annum award, given to the most outstanding art major. During his senior year, the college administration purchased one of Sager's paintings to be exhibited at the Truman Foundation headquarters in Washington, D.C. After graduation, Sager interned with artist Mark English and received a full scholarship to the Illustration Academy at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Upon his return from studying at the Academy, Sager began working as an independent artist, gathering a body of work that has been described by critics as "moody" and "smart." Recalling the way some mid-20th century artists turned to basic subject matter after the war, Sager's work serves as a redemptive examination into post-September 11 America. The work itself reflects the modest aspects of his subject matter with its simplistic composition and almost archaic stylization, and with the deconstructive paint process Sager employs, his work simultaneously exploits the social and physical deterioration of the literal subject matter. This process involves an underpainting of naïve color and collage, a subsequent wash with roofing tar, and a scraping on and off of paint with a palette knife. In essence, the artist is physically destroying his painting while metaphysically taking part in the destruction of the literal subject matter. The result is part realism and part primitivism: a visual struggle between idealism and pragmatism. Sager's work has had the honor of being chosen for Columbia, Missouri's 2003 Festival of the Arts poster and the 2005 Les Bourgeois seasonal wine label. At only 25 years of age, Sager is permanently represented in Columbia, Missouri by the Perlow-Stevens Gallery and has shown nationally and internationally from St. Louis, Missouri to Yokohama, Japan. Joel Sager has lived in Columbia, MO since 2003.

Voce commissioned Madonna and Child for its inaugural concert in October, 2006 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Abraham in Contemplation: House of Abraham in May, 2007 for Habitat for Humanity.