Erling Sjovold

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Erling Sjovold received his B.A. in Studio Art from U.C.- Berkeley and his M.F.A. in Painting from The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Grants and residency awards he has received include the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, Ragdale, The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Hafnarborg Cultural Center-Iceland, Jessie Ball DuPont Summer Fellowship at the National Center for the Humanities, U.S. Interior Department-National Park Service, Georgia Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grant, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship. He has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Born Richmond, VA
Lives and works in Richmond, VA

Education

1990
MFA, Painting and Drawing, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1984
BA, Art, Phi Beta Kappa, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

1980-82
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA

1979-80
Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2011
Marcia Burtt Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

2008
Sun, Sugar, Shadow: Trouble with Time, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL

2007
Open Studio –  three public exhibitions held by each participating artist as part of the year-long, Sept.-’06-Aug.’07 residency program, Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation/ Space Program Studios, New York, NY

2005
Foil and Stray, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL.

2003
Flippo Gallery, Randolph Macon College, Ashland, VA
Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA

2002
Hollins University, Roanoke, VA

2000
Lacuna Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2014
Ward/Sjovold, Marcia Burtt Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

2010
Pauley Center Gallery, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Richmond International Airport gallery, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

2009
Story and Form (Steven DiBenedetto, Angela Dufresne, Hanneline Rogeberg, Erling Sjovold), Harnett Museum, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA,

2008
Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL, (collaboration with painter Patrick Welch)
Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University, Baltimore, MD
Gangbusters, Plane Space, New York, NY

2007
Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, Art Club
Reynolds Gallery, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA
Micromentalists, Fifty/50 Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Micromentalists, Dogmatic/Butcher Shop, Chicago, IL

2006
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL.
Reynolds Gallery – Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA

2005
Art Chicago 13th Annual International Contemporary Arts Fair, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL
Chris Chase, Hiroshi Kimura, Erling Sjovold, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA.

2004
David Douglas, Bill Dunlap, Alyson Weege, Erling Sjovold, McLean Project for the Arts,McLean, VA
WATERCOLOR, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY
Critical Mass, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA. Juror: Peter Schjeldahl, critic New Yorker, Art Forum
Senate/General Assembly Building, Richmond. VA

2003
Recent Work: Erling Sjovold and Ephraim Rubenstein, Cudahy’s Gallery, Richmond. VA.
1+1=3 (collaboration with painter Patrick Welch) Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Watercolor, Kouros Gallery, New York, NY
Guest List, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL
Commonwealth of Virginia – Senate/General Assembly Building, Richmond. VA

2002
Disruptive Topographies (Utah Landscapes of Hooper, Smith and Sjovold), Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Inventive Landscapes, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Nature of Nature, Boyden Gallery, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD
Plein-Air Revisited, Andrews Gallery, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Chicago International Art Exposition – Navy Pier (with Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA)
Inspiring Narratives, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
San Francisco International Art Exposition –Fort Mason Center (with Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA)

2001
Disruptive Topographies: The Utah Landscapes of Hooper, Smith and Sjovold, First Street Gallery, California State University–Humboldt, Eureka, CA
Recent Work: Erling Sjovold and Ephraim Rubenstein, Cudahy’s Gallery, Richmond, VA.
Holiday, Lacuna Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Working from Life: The Figure in Drawing, Reynolds Gallery, Westmont College–Santa Barbara, CA
Deep South, Foyer Gallery, University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus, Sydney, Australia

2000
Tiny Works for the Ages, Project, Wichita, KS.
Peninsula Fine Arts Center Biennial, Newport News, VA. Juror: Marcos Ramirez
Zeuxis: Still Life: The Human Presence, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT

Awards and Residences
2011
Summer Residency, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Amherst, VA

2010
National Park Service Artist Residency, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

2008
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship

2006-07
Space Program, Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, New York, NY

2006
Artist Residency, Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL

2005
Jessie Ball duPont Summer Seminar Fellowship 2005, National Center for the Humanities, Durham, NC
Faculty Research Grant, University of Richmond

2004
Faculty Research Grant, University of Richmond
Global Partners Russia Summer Seminar/Mellon Foundation, “ Post-Soviet Art and Culture,” Russia
Summer Residency, U.C. Riverside, Sweeney Mountains Desert Research Center

2003
Summer Residency, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Amherst, VA.

2002
Faculty Research Grant 2002, University of Richmond
Mednick Fellowship, Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, 2002

2001
Summer Residency, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, UT
Summer Research Fellowship, University of Richmond
Faculty Research Grant, University of Richmond

2000
Summer Residency, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, UT
Summer Research Fellowship, University of Richmond
Faculty Research Grant, University of Richmond

Selected Teaching

1999-Present
University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, Associate Professor, Department of Art/Art History – Painting and Drawing

1997-99
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Assistant Professor – Visiting, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts – Fundamentals Studio

1992-97
Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA, Professor (non-tenure institution), Painting Department – Painting and Drawing

 

 

“Place”, and how I construct it, grows more central to my paintings. Even when I paint odd narratives, place becomes an actor. Place is both exterior and interior, as topography and memory, physical and virtual, lost and found, and I carry the whole mess around like my paints. Whether it is because I have moved a lot in my life or because I am responding to the “here” is “elsewhere/everywhere” character of living remains a question for the paintings to sort out.

Specifically I think about displacement and the unifying properties of light/color. And, I think about Heraclitus’ quote, “No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”. The paradoxes of situation and identity I enjoy exploring through paint.

My paintings begin collage-like by piecing together various spaces.  Passages include those from direct observation (plein air), from memory, abstract invention, and photography. The role that light/color plays is in how the seams of this puzzle are fused or left exposed. As the paintings evolve my concerns shift from an obvious cut-and-paste aesthetic towards one of attempted or partial unity.  I say “attempted” or “partial” unity because desire is a subject of these paintings, my desire for staying connected within the given contingencies and mediations of living.

Backpacking has yielded to lawn mowing. Wonder remains. The raw beauty and chaos that I associate with the Western landscapes of my youth are masked by the refined spaces of my paintings and their suburban sensibility. Very much like my experiences of natural history dioramas and their staged dramas, my paintings similarly ride the edge between affirmation and loss, sympathy and alienation, fact and fiction, living and dead, revival and absurdity. Still, I am entranced every day by the elemental rising and setting of the sun.