Jay Sagen

Untitled
, 1993

Acrylic and ink on canvas 66″ x 66″

Gift: Artist, 2008

Local Coastline Community College gallery curator Jay Sagen pulls his influence from abstract expressionists in the San Francisco bay area. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972, Sagen began working in galleries and began his prolific career as both an artist and curator. Sagen was eventually drawn to teaching in 1977; he has continued with his philosophy to educate through experience while exposing students to important historical artists, styles and movements ever since.

While completing his Master in Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine, Sagen focused on abstract compositions in printmaking. The abstraction of black and white compositions has long been a strong reoccurring theme throughout his career and is evident in his large painting, Untitled, that has been in Chapman University’s Permanent Art Collection since 2008. As an artist, Sagen’s main focus has been on nonrepresentational forms in alternative media, such as latex, ink and Masonite. As a curator, he has focused on displaying and contextualizing local Orange County artists.

All text and images under copyright. Please contact collections@chapman.edu for permission to use. Information subject to change upon further research.