VOLTA NY: ERIK THOR SANDBERG
March 5 – 8, 2015
Booth C1

CONNERSMITH is delighted to present paintings on panel by Erik Thor Sandberg at the VOLTA NY, Pier 90 in New York City, March 5 – 8, 2015.

Erik Thor Sandberg, known for his masterful representations of the human figure and landscape, has created a new series of Magical Realist oil paintings with inventive imagery ranging from panoramic to intimate.

Sandberg delves into mysteries underlying our connections to each other, and to the material world we inhabit, in the large figural landscapes that anchor his current body of work. The artist designed concave panels to envelope us in sweeping vistas where the human psyche confronts itself and the powers of nature in the present day. As the picture planes bend, so do the meanings that play out across them in near and far views, pushing and pulling the ideas evoked by the breathtaking details of Sandberg’s imagery. Diverting our thoughts from a predetermined arc of linear progression toward elusive possibilities, these extensive topographies assert that our personal and collective journeys lack sure directions and fixed outcomes.

Sandberg’s own brand of Sachlichkeit (objectivity) animates his smaller format panels with everyday objects, including piercings and pop culture toys, which he provocatively stages with people and wild animals. His unerring brush conjures single figures, pairs, or small groups of imagined characters. Each faces a nebulous force or mysterious defining element, which is seemingly unreal, or oddly improbable. The artist imbues his subjects’ internal dilemmas and interpersonal dynamics with unnerving humor in these fantastic miniature worlds.

In this latest suite of small and large panels, Sandberg pushes the skillful illusionism of master painting to the contemporary edge of Magic Realism.

Erik Thor Sandberg (b. Quantico, VA 1975) lives and works in Washington, D.C. His work has been exhibited at public and private venues internationally, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, and is in numerous private collections.

VOLTA NY
DAILY VIP HOUR: Friday – Sunday, 11 am – 12 pm
PUBLIC HOURS: Friday – Saturday, 12 – 8 pm; Sunday, 12 – 7 pm

For further information: info@connersmith.us.com.