Untitled, 2008
Sigrid Sandstrom’s acrylic paintings withstand a good amount of looking. In one of her untitled pieces, the pile of what appears to be collaged bits of torn and cut paper in the foreground anchor the eye, but the atmospheric background has, strangely, the same amount of presence – giving the sensation of an abstraction floating in a landscape. The word “floating†may lead to an appropriate analogy, for as much as these works depend upon an oscillation between the fore- and background, the tension between the two is not so much a struggle, as it is a rhythmic balance. The fact that Sandstrom employs trompe l’oeil – all the elements are painted - is really beside the point (The Company, Chinatown)