Christina Saj

Christina Saj /saɪ/ (Ukrainian: Христина Сай) (born 1967 in Syracuse NY) is a Ukrainian American artist living and working in New Jersey. She is best known for her paintings bridging traditional Byzantine iconography and contemporary art. She has created icons in the modern vernacular, that are neither pastiche, nor nostalgic reference, but rather as meant religious symbol.

 Biography 
Christina Saj is a first generation American, whose family emigrated to the US after WWII from Ternopil, Ukraine. Saj grew up in Montclair, NJ where she returned after completing her undergraduate and graduate studies.

 Education and early career 
Saj earned a BA in Fine Art in 1988 from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville NY, followed by an MFA in Painting from the Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts at  Bard College, Annandale on Hudson in 1992, she also studied Byzantine Art History at Wadham College, Oxford University, and spent time at SACI in Florence, Italy. Early in her career she learned traditional techniques of icon painting using egg tempera (a medium that employs pure pigment ground with an emulsion of egg and water) on a ground of levkas, while studying precepts of Byzantine Iconography with Petro Cholodny the Younger, whose icons can be found in Lourdes, Rome and in NY.

Despite traditional training, Saj has often used found or unconventional materials in her work such as wood, metal, glass, collage elements and mixed media. Her works are based on traditional prototypes and therefore can be recognized as venerable objects of worship. In her 1997 solo exhibition “Remembering Myth” Saj explored the realization that all cultures search for spiritual meaning and thus began to pursue universal symbols with broad spiritual concepts.

 Style and technique 
Saj is a prolific artist who is equally comfortable producing intimate work and large scale painting in an architectural context. In her 1997 solo exhibition “Remembering Myth” Saj explored the realization that all cultures search for spiritual meaning and thus began to pursue universal symbols with broad spiritual concepts.

Saj’s work features strong compositions, an ambitious palette that takes delight in decorative effects and ornamentation. Her two-dimensional works merge representation with abstraction to create mystical spaces. She imbues the work with influences from traditional folk art, Ukrainian embroidery patterns, pysanka designs, and traditional religious iconography.  A 1991 series made with industrial metal screens reduced her subjects to the purest geometric forms using subtle changes in texture and color to achieve definition. When exhibiting these works, Saj sometimes offered a traditional illustration and/or a biblical reference alongside it.

 Exhibitions and collections 
Saj’s work has been exhibited at venues as The Ukrainian Museum, Union Theological Seminary, The Marian Library at University of Dayton, Museum of Biblical Art (NYC), The National Cathedral, (DC) The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (NYC), The Museum of Cultural Heritage (Kiev, Ukraine), Andrey Sheptytskky The National Museum in (Lviv, Ukraine), and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago.

The Arts and Emhassies Program selected her Tree of Life series for the Qatar Embassy in Doha, Qatar.

In 2019 the Ukrainian Museum in NYC invited Saj to do a public engagement  installation project for them. REcreate, an installation consisting of 12 large panels with moveable parts invited museum goers to co-create works by reassembling removable pieces with the artist. The magnetized paintings turned passive viewers into co-creators, encouraging them to think about composition the way artists do. Participants posted their creations with the hashtag #RecreateAtUM which turned their artworks into an online exhibition on Instagram. 

In 2021, The Ukrainian Museum exhibited the Saj’s response to COVID-19 titled Finding Sanctuary During the Pandemic, a collection of paintings on vinyl records that lined a wall in the lobby and an adjacent gallery to dramatic effect: The circular forms provided a sacred space at a stressful time to demonstrate that even amid the chaos, there is beauty, and there is art.

 Publications 
Saj’s work has been published in the New England Review, WovenTale Press, Our Life Magazine, The Christian Century, and Christians in the Visual Arts: Voices, ad Liturgical Press.

 Curatorial work 
Saj was the Founder and Director of ARTspace 129 a gallery in Montclair NJ (2004-2007). She curated and presented six exhibitions of regional artists annually.

 Residencies 
In 2022 she was awarded a residency at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York City.

ResIn 2008, as part of a residency Saj created an installation of the Six Days of Creation at New Brunswick Theological Seminary which was installed in the sanctuary on the New Brunswick campus.

 Selected solo exhibitions 

 Lucky Charms, Talisman of a former life 81 Leonard Gallery, NYC  2023
 Finding Sanctuary: Painting thru the Pandemic, Ukrainian Museum, NYC 2022
 Sacred Space: Art as Sanctuary, First Presbytarian Church, Ann Arbor MI 2022
 Longing For What Belongs to Us  FreshAirMontclair, 73 See Gallery, Montclair NJ 2020
 Sacred Space: Art as Sanctuary, First Presbytarian Church, Ann Arbor MI 2022
 Longing For What Belongs to Us  FreshAirMontclair, 73 See Gallery, Montclair NJ 2020
 RE:create – Christina Saj’s Transformative Paintings, Ukrainian Museum, NYC 2019
 Cruciform, Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta GA  2014
 Let the Angels Sing! 5th Avenue Presbyterian, New York, NY 2012
 Chorus of Angels, Christ Church Episcopal, Glen Ridge NJ | 2011
 Angels, Shepherds and Kings Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta GA 2011
 On a Wing and A Prayer,  Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA 2011
 Images of Faith, Grantham Church, Grantham, PA 2010
 Form Seeking Expression, Marian Library, University of Dayton, Dayton OH 2010
 The Six Days of Creation, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Rutgers University, NJ 2008(39)
 Visions and Imaginings, artpsace 129, Montclair, NJ  2006
 Lisova Pisnia, Ukrainian Education Cultural Center Gallery, Philadelphia PA  2004
 The Tree of Life, American Embassy, Doha, Qatar thru 2006
 Words and images, works on paper The Rosalind & Alfred Lippman Gallery, Temple B’nai Jeshurun Short Hills, NJ 2003
 Indomitable Spirit: Paintings of Faith, Hope and Remembrance, The Interchurch Center NY,  NY 2001
 The Guiding Spirit, The Bible Technologies Conference, Chantilly, VA 2000
 The Corporate Landscape, Brodsky Gallery, Chauncey Conference Center, Princeton, NJ2000
 Painted Prayers, St. James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University, NY, NY 2000
 Drawing on Inspiration, Midland Gallery; Montclair, NJ 1999
 Music as Art/Art as Music, Central Presbyterian Church, Montclair, NJ 1999
 Celebration of Faith, Central Presbyterian Church, Montclair, NJ 1997
 Remembering Myth, Midland Gallery; Montclair, NJ 1997
 Allegories, The Lobby Gallery, Deutsche Bank, New York, NY 1995-06
 Saints, Kings and Prophets, The Lobby Gallery, Deutsche Bank, New York, NY 1995
 Contemporary Icons, Norbert Considine Gallery, Stuart Country Day School, Princeton, NJ 1994
 New Painting, Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto, Canada 1993

 References 

 Other websites 
 Christina Saj official Website
 Ghosts of Byzantium Literature and Medicine Johns Hopkins University Press
 Rachel Nicholl’s Walking on Water

Category:American artists
Category:1967 births
Category:Living people