Look for the Spring 2009 article on Erik in NW Coast Magazine: www.nwcmagazine.com 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 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 recently 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 and a board member of the Washington Community and Technical College Humanities Association. Click here to view Erik Sandgren's website
|
