Erik Painting in Gwaii Hanass photo Kathryn Cotnoir 2015

Contact Erik

Email: erik@eriksandgren.com

Phone: (360) 581-1305

Galleries

Karin Clarke Gallery | 760 Willamette St, Eugene, OR | https://www.karinclarkegallery.com/

 Print Arts Northwest | https://printartsnw.org/

 Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery | https://rentalsalesgallery.com/

 RiverSea Gallery | 1160 Commercial St, Astoria, OR | http://riverseagallery.squarespace.com/

 Art Shine Project | http://artshine.org/

Northwest Artists Against Extinction https://nwaae.org/partners/erik-sandgren

Video Links

Atelier Meridian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBJPUwIVilY

 

Biography

Erik Sandgren has long been associated with the culture of visual arts in the Northwest: mountains, trees and water, skies and people have inspired his feeling for location, myth and history. Probing the Northwest landscape with sensitivity to myth 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. 

His father, Nelson Sandgren, was a noted painter and OSU Art professor. Their Corvallis household was saturated with the art and artists that fostered Erik’s early interests and education as a painter. He went east to study 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 as a one-person art department 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 acquire firsthand experience of Western art history and architecture. This and other travels informed his  commitment  to the Foundations Program and his own work. 

Erik 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 of 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. 

  • Professional Accomplishments, Education Special Studies

    Oregon Gallery Representation Karin Clarke Gallery, Eugene, Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, RiverSea Gallery, Astoria,  Art Adventure Gallery, Madras

    Upcoming Special Exhibitions  The Columbia River: Wallula to the Sea  Maryhill Museum 2024

    Special Collections Erik Sandgren Papers in Pacific Northwest Artist Archives, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University

    Special 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

    Grant Recipient Washington Artist Trust 1993 

    Print Arts Northwest artist member 1981-present

    Juror: 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, participation on committees for selection and placement of public art projects include Gerard Tsutakawa - Illumination, Peter Richards -Sky Sweeps, Tom Morandi -The Workers

    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

  • Selected Publications

    Strait Art; An Anthology of Exhibitions from the Upper Left-Hand Corner, Jake Seniuk Marrowstone Press 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 Museum, Aberdeen, WA

    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

    Maryhill Museum, Goldendale WA

    Montesano Timberland Library, Montesano, WA

    Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner WA

    College of Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State University

    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. transferred to 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