Alison Saar consistently grapples with issues of race (specifically of the African diaspora) in her work, at the same time paying homage to great art and artists of the past. Born in Los Angeles, the middle of three daughters of pioneering Black assemblage artist Betye Saar and art conservator Richard Saar, Alison Saar grew up in a household filled with creative energy and a broad range of art objects—all of which fueled her desire to create work reflecting what she has called “the plurality of her own experience.”

In Bubba< we see a man depicted at small scale, barefoot and seated on a stiff red chair with another red chair—in this case a padded armchair—in the place of his heart. This padded chair may refer to the famous quote by modernist master Henri Matisse (who is often associated with the color red due to his renowned painting The Red Studio in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art) that “art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.” Bubba’s intense stare suggests he is seeing another world, one in which the powers of art (or memory, love, or spirituality) can counteract the grind of daily existence.