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SELECT | Erik Thor Sandberg: New Drawings

June - July 2021

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CONNERSMITH is pleased to provide a select view of new drawings by Erik Thor Sandberg.

SELECT | Erik Thor Sandberg: New Drawings - - Exhibitions - CONNERSMITH.

 

“Most of the drawings I do remain unseen because they are preparatory to my paintings. When I conceive drawings as completed works, there is a precision and an immediacy in creating them that I enjoy. They act as scouts for imagery to come; some of their elements will reemerge in future works.

-  Erik Thor Sandberg

SELECT | Erik Thor Sandberg: New Drawings - - Exhibitions - CONNERSMITH.

 

I think of the spheres in these drawings as cells containing components which function together as systems. The cells are constraining, like prison cells. But they can also be understood as organic cells, with animals or people closely enveloped in a shared environment.

- Erik Thor Sandberg

SELECT | Erik Thor Sandberg: New Drawings - - Exhibitions - CONNERSMITH.

 

Though the animals are standard symbolic types, I play with their roles within these cells. Serpents, to me, instead of representing evil, embody curiosity. Birds could represent freedom, yet they rely on their perch to live. The lions could be symbols of strength, but I wanted to reveal their vulnerability.”

- Erik Thor Sandberg

Erik Thor Sandberg (b. 1975, Quantico, VA) lives and works in Washington, DC. His work has been exhibited at public and private venues internationally, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC. Sandberg's paintings are in numerous international private collections.