The Broderick Gallery presents “Water & Light,” a show of new paintings by
artist Erik Sandgren. In addition to the First Thursday reception with
Sandgren, October 6, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., there will be a reception,
Sunday, October 9th, from noon to 4:00 p.m. The show runs Oct. 1 through
30. Gallery hours are 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
The theme “Water & Light” refers to Sandgren’s ongoing inspiration. “I think
of water as rhythm, flow, reflection and refraction; light as the essential
fact interpretable in paint as color and shape,” said Sandgren.
“I make a particular study of color relationships in painting by
responding to light as relationships of hue, value, intensity and
dichotomies of warm and cool. This is the commonality underlying all my
endeavors with both imagined and observed realities. It allows me to be at
home painting in Canada, Europe, China, California, Southeast Utah, the
Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific Northwest. I have significant bodies of
work from all these places. My work is always specific for light/color
relationships more than object detail. As a painter, I search for both the
technical and emotional.”
Skaitaiaksla Norge
10" x 12"
Watercolor
Sandgren’s 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. He has exhibited throughout the nation, including many group,
two-person and juried shows, and two solo shows in New York.
Though recognized locally, nationally and internationally, Sandgren has
strong roots in the Northwest. He teaches at Gray’s Harbor College
(Aberdeen, Wash.) and has continued his father’s (Nelson Sandgren) tradition
of gathering nearly 100 plein-aire painters at the Oregon coast each
summer.
Sandgren’s 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 painting:
experience of the world itself.
Languedoc
10" X 14"
Watercolor
A frieze of images based on Sandgren’s extensive experience with North
American petroglyphs is integrated with the architectural design of the
Aberdeen Timberland Library in Aberdeen, WA, and he recently completed
another mural commission for the Montesano Timberland Library. Other
Northwest exhibitions include the Lucia Douglas Gallery in Bellingham and
the Meridian Gallery in San Francisco. In 1989, Sandgren 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, Sandgren was Fulbright Exchange teacher to England for a year
at Hastings College of Art and Technologies. During the summer of 1987, he
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 2003, he was artist-in-residence with the
Alfred Klots program at Rochefort-en-Terre in France administered by the
Maryland Institute College of Art.
Sandgren is a charter member of the Northwest Print Council and a board
member of the Washington Community and Technical College Humanities
Association. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale College with distinction
in art, with Bernard Chaet as his principle mentor. He received his MFA in
1977 from Cornell University in both painting and printmaking.
Since graduate school, teaching has been a welcome complement to
Sandgren’s ongoing work in the studio. Prior to his tenure at Grays Harbor
College, he 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.
