Erik Sandgren painting Gwaii Hanass Photo by K. Cotnoir
Erik Sandgren has long been associated with the culture of visual arts in the Northwest. Probing the Northwest landscape with sensitivity to history and origins, Sandgren’s landscapes evoke the Northwest intertwine: community in the context of nature. His large scale public projects include murals in the Montesano and Aberdeen, Washington Public Libraries, the Port of Grays Harbor Centennial Mural Project, Nirvana in Aberdeen and the 4600 square feet Eugene/Springfield Airport Concourse Project on which he assisted his father. Having been tenured as a one-person art department of Grays Harbor College he has returned to Oregon to and live work full-time.
Erik’s early interests and education as a painter was fostered by his father, Nelson (1917-2006), a noted painter and OSU Art professor. Erik studied on the broad path of a liberal arts education at Yale (BA 1975) and flourished there in the practice and theory of visual art under the mentorships of Erwin Hauer, Bernard Chaet and Gretna Campbell. He focused his commitment to painting and printmaking at Cornell University (MFA 1977).
In 1989, Sandgren returned like a homing salmon, to the headwaters of his art and early life in the Pacific Northwest. He taught from 1989 through 2017 at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, WA. Sabbaticals and a Fulbright Teaching Exchange to England enabled Sandgren to explore Europe’s deeply settled landscapes and sacred spaces.
Erik’s work is widely represented in private and public collections including the University of Oregon Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Maryhill Museum, Portland State University, Museum of Oregon Territory, University of Portland, Oregon State University, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, the Franklin Furnace Gallery of the Museum of Modern Art, Yale University Art Gallery and the China National Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou.
REPRESENTATION
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Professional Highights, Education, Special Studies
The Columbia River: Wallula to the Sea Maryhill Museum March-Nov. 2024 Featured Artist
Special Collections Erik Sandgren Papers in Pacific Northwest Artist Archives, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette UniversitySpecial Collections Erik Sandgren Papers in SCARC, Valley Library of Oregon State University
Public Art Projects Aberdeen and Nirvana, Port of Grays Harbor Commission Room, Aberdeen Timberland Library, W.S Abel Timberland Library, Concourse Mural Eugene Springfield Airport
Artist-in-Residence Rochefort-en-Terre, Brittany, France; Maryland Institute College of Art, 2003 and 2006
Fulbright Teaching Exchange to Hastings College of Art and Technology, East Sussex, England 1995-96
Washington Artist Trust Grant 1993
Print Arts Northwest artist member 1981-presentJuror: Umpqua Valley Plein Air Event, Expressions West: Coos Art Museum, OSU Art About Agriculture, Yamhill County Showcase, Clark County Open Studios, Maryland State Duck Stamp competition, Oregon Society of Artists Rose Festival Exhibition,
Committee member for selection and placement of public art projects in Grays Harbor County, WA including Gerard Tsutakawa Illumination, Peter Richards Sky Sweeps, Tom Morandi The Workers, David Franklin Chinookan Sunset
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar: English Romanticism and the Visual Arts Dartmouth College 1987
Cornell University, MFA 1977 painting and printmaking
Yale College, BA 1975
Yale at Norfolk Program, summer 1974
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Selected Publications
Pacific Threshold: Sandgren and Sandgren Painting the Oregon Coast with Friends 1978-2023
Strait Art; An Anthology of Exhibitions from the Upper Left-Hand Corner, Jake Seniuk, Marrowstone Press with MoNA 2020
Artist of the Week, Willamette Week Portland,OR 6 March 2019
Visual Magic, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Ed. Hartz and Knapp 2018
Washington Coast Magazine Harbor Artists, Erik Sandgren, Summer 2016
Oregon Stater Magazine - Celebratory Painting Fall 2015
Washington Coast Magazine - The Art of Grit and Grime - Erik Sandgren, Summer 2015
100 Artists of the Northwest by Ashley Rooney, Schiffer Publications 2014
Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Ghost Stories by Jake Seniuk 2013
Crosscurrents Washington Community College Humanities Association 1992-2012
Northwest Coast Magazine, Painter of the Rain Coast Volume 1, Issue 4 2009
This Bountiful Place Oregon Historical Society Press and OSU 2006
Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, In Search of a Homeland 2003
Journey: AAA Magazine, Washington Painters 2001
Northwest Art and Artists, 1990, Mahlon Sweet Airport Mural
New Art Examiner, March 1988, Vol.15, No.7, p.51
Baltimore Sun Inverse Operations Dec. 8, 1987
American Apocalypses by J. Robinson, Johns Hopkins U. Press 1985
The Art of Drawing by Bernard Chaet, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston 3rd ed. 1983
Newsletter for the Oregon Committee for the Humanities The Car as Lens 1980 -
Selected Permanent Collections
Aberdeen Timberland Library, Aberdeen, WA
Arches Paper Co., New York, NY
Bishop Foundation, Bishop Center for Performing Arts, Aberdeen, WA
California Institute of the Arts, Visual Arts Library Artists Book Collection, Valencia, CA
Chemeketa Community College, Salem, OR
China National Academy of Fine Art, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China
City of Hillsboro public collection
Clackamas Community College, Oregon City, OR
Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR
Franklin Furnace Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Gordon and Vivian Gilkey Print Collection, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Grays Harbor College, Aberdeen, WA
Grays Harbor Community Hospital, Aberdeen, WA
Guilford College Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
Hallie Ford Museum, Willamette University Salem, OR
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, Hastings, East Sussex, England
Hillsboro Public Art Collection
Hoquiam Timberland Library, Hoquiam, WA
Jordan Schnitzer Mueseum of Art, University of Oregon
Klippan AB/Lessebo Handpappersbruk, Sweden
Maryhill Museum, Goldendale WA
Montesano Timberland Library, Montesano, WA
Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner WA
College of Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State University
Oregon State University Foundation
Pierce College, Tacoma, WA
Polson Museum, Hoquiam, WA
Portland Community College, Rock Creek Campus
Portland State University
Safeco Insurance Co. Corporate Art Collection, Seattle, WA @ Washington Art Consortium, Western Gallery, Bellingham, WA
St. Martin's Abbey, Lacey, WA
Shelton Timberland Library, Shelton, WA
University of Portland
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT