Erik Sandgren
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Erik Sandgren regularly exhibits prints and paintings throughout the Pacific
Northwest and elsewhere. His paintings in many media involve both plein aire and
studio compositions based on the fundamental themes and imagery of water, earth,
sky, and figures in the landscape. His paintings embody a personal poetry of
space and time unified by closely observed light and color. His work has
developed over the years in response to a wide range of influences including the
Northwest Painters, European painting of the Renaissance through early 20th
century and classical Asian art. It systematically explores painterly traditions
and at the same time refers to experience beyond beyond painting: experience of
the world itself.
Erik has exhibited throughout the nation in many group, two-person and juried
shows, including two solo shows in New York. He is represented here by the
Broderick Gallery , the Portland Art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery, and Artspace
Gallery in Bay City, Oregon. He has exhibited at the Lucia Douglas Gallery in
Bellingham and the Meridian Gallery in San Francisco. His work is in many public
collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Yale University Art Gallery, the
Safeco Insurance Company Corporate Collection and the China National Academy of
Fine Art in Hangzhou, PRC. A frieze of images based on his extensive experience
with North American petroglyphs is integrated with the architectural design of
the Aberdeen Timberland Library in Aberdeen, WA and he has just completed
another mural commission for the Montesano Timberland Library.
Erik graduated magna cum laude from Yale College with distinction in art.
Bernard Chaet was his principle mentor there. Erik received his MFA in 1977 from
Cornell University in both Painting and Printmaking. Since graduate school,
teaching has been a welcome complement to his ongoing work in the studio. Prior
to his tenure at Grays Harbor College, Erik taught at Portland State University,
Treasure Valley and Clackamas Community Colleges in Oregon, Chesapeake College
in Maryland and worked as a public arts administrator for the Baltimore
Mayor’s Committee on Art and Culture.
During the summer of 1987 Erik participated in the National Endowment for the
Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers at Dartmouth College where he did
research on English Romantic Art and Literature. In 1989 he assisted his father
in realizing the largest mural in the Pacific Northwest: over 4,000 square feet
of wall in the Eugene-Springfield Airport. In 1995-96 he was Fulbright Exchange
teacher to England for a year at Hastings College of Art and Technologies. He
has just returned to teaching from extended sabbatical leave to Europe including
an Artist Residency with the Alfred Klots program at Rochefort-en-Terre in
France administered by the Maryland Institute College of Art. Erik is a charter
member of the Northwest Print Council.
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