Artworks

Erik was born in Corvallis, Oregon in 1952 and grew up in the environs of Oregon State University. His father, Nelson Sandgren, was a noted painter and OSU art professor. Their household was saturated with the visual culture that fostered Erik's early interests and education as a painter/printmaker. He went east to study at Yale (BA '75) and Cornell (MFA '77) where he expanded his painting and printmaking skills as part of the broad path of Ivy League liberal arts. His primary mentors were Bernard Chaet, Gretna Campbell and Erwin Hauer.