ABOUT SANDRA H. ANDERSEN
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sandra H. Andersen is an Icelandic artist, writer, and passionate advocate for women's rights based in New York and Reykjavik. The latter played host to her first solo gallery show in August 2022. She continues to exhibit in galleries around the world and explore opportunities to share her work across new mediums. At a cursory glance, her paper sculptures may seem to resemble the pristine topography of her native Iceland. However they are not a reflection of the stark mountainscapes of her home, but an exploration of more intimate wilds. Those that lie within.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
The sculptures are composed of layers upon layers of paper, just as a life is built upon countless layers of emotion, memory, trauma, and joy. Most are unseen and irreconcilable, with only their raw jagged edges peering out from shadowy concealment into view, but all are essential in creating the whole. Each layer of paper is a shard ripped from identical sheets, its unique identity informed only by its near destruction. The purity and simplicity of the uniformly white paper balances the complexity of the texture. Any perceived variation in tone is an illusion of light and shadow. The pursuit of perfection is abandoned, and the abnormal becomes beautiful.