SANDY LITCHFIELD

Born in New York City, Sandy Litchfield lives and works in Amherst, Massachusetts where she is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Department of Architecture. She received her BFA from the University of Colorado in Boulder and her MFA from UMass Amherst. In 2007 she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been recognized with grants and commissions from the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, Public Art for Public Schools, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Puffin Foundation. Litchfield has exhibited in numerous museums including the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, The Fitchburg Art Museum, The Portland Art Museum and The Hunterdon Museum. Her exhibitions have been selected for review by The Brooklyn Rail, The Boston Phoenix, New American Paintings and The Boston Globe.

STATEMENT:

My work is focused on landscape as a construct for understanding place and notions of belonging. As a painter, I position my work in the legacy of early American modernists painters. But I am also deeply influenced and affected by Eco-Fiction/ Eco-Feminist authors like Octavia Butler,  Ursula K LeGuin, Donna Harroway and Robin Wall Kimmerer. These writers have cleared new paths for exploring and understanding our relationship with place; a relationship that is reciprocal, entwined and synonymous. I make paintings that express the feeling of a place as we may experience it while traveling or in memory; when the impression or gesture of the place is vague but poignant, familiar but faint, tangled but also patterned and arranged. The colors, shapes or textures may evoke something fleshy, or prickly, or smooth in a way that connects our internal and external experience. The landscapes I like most are the ones that embrace and engage our emotional and spiritual yearnings. They offer a way out– and a way in– simultaneously.

When I make art for public places, I look and listen carefully to the wholeness of that place– the living and nonliving, the animate and inanimate, the light, the seasons, the pathways, the voices, barks and birdsongs. I weave these elements together into a tapestry that celebrates that terroir. Collaborating with other creative practitioners– architects, fabricators, contractors, as well as clients and community stakeholders– always enriches the process. Making public art is an opportunity to forge connections; connections between diverse communities, connections to our history, connections to place and connections to our own sensory experience.

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Press

'Y3K: ON DISTANT KEYS’ exhibition at University of Massachusetts Design Building Gallery From March 25-April 26, the Design Building Gallery will feature an exhibition and event led by Associate Professor of Architecture Sandy Litchfield titled, “Y3K: On Distant Keys,” which imagines a future where landforms are recognized as sentient beings with legal rights and the ability to self-govern.
Discover "Near and Far: Daisy Craddock and Sandy Litchfield" Viewing Room on Artsy Garvey|Simon is thrilled to be part of Artsy's exclusive seasonal fair, Foundations Winter 2024, featuring a carefully curated selection of two artists whose distinctive approaches beautifully capture both the intimate and expansive intricacies of nature.
Sandy Litchfield's MTA commission now on view MTA Arts & Design announces Forestation Syncopation, a new public art commission for the Long Island Rail Road

(NEW YORK, NY — June 15, 2022) MTA Arts & Design announces Forestation Syncopation, a new public art commission for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) New Hyde Park Station, situated in two westbound platform shelters and one eastbound platform shelter. Each composition portrays a distinct view of a landscape impression, as if catching a glimpse of morning sun before work, or the flicker of light through the trees on the way home. 

“Sandy Litchfield’s delightful jewel-like glass artwork captures the rhythm of riding the train to and from Long Island, watching the urban landscape give way to nature,” said MTA Arts & Design Director Sandra Bloodworth. “The three compositions are visually mesmerizing and daily patterns of daylight will provide an ever-changing experience on the daily commute.” 

Garvey|Simon Future Fair booth featured in Artillery Magazine New York Art Week Future Fair and NADA report by Annabel Keenan

Female abstract artists were a popular choice for exhibitors, like Caroline Denervaud, whose geometric, charcoal drawings amazed viewers at Double V Gallery, and Sandy Litchfield, whose colorful paintings were on view in Garvey|Simon’s booth. Garvey|Simon was also a perfect example of how well exhibitors can work together. Litchfield’s paintings were joined by colorful mixed media sculptures by Roberley Bell presented by Raft of Sanity. The curved lines and modular structure of Bell’s works complemented the geometric shapes of Litchfield’s paintings.

Sandy Litchfield in Woven Tale Press
Sandy Litchfield in Public Art Review: Projects We Love Issue #59
The Tree Inside Me Sandy Litchfield at PS14X
NYC Gallery Scene – Highlights Through January 7, 2018
Inward/Outward in Wall Street International
Garvey/Simon opens a group exhibition curated by Joseph A. Gross
LEAVINGS: The After Images Wall Street International
26 Jan. 2017
LEAVINGS: The After Images Artsy Editorial
4 Jan. 2017
Sandy Litchfield: Deciduous Cities NYC GALLERY OPENINGS
Progressive, Provocative Landscapes Cate McQuaid
11 Nov. 2015
Land Ho! at Fitchburg Art Museum Olivia J. Kiers
10 Nov. 2015
Artist Interview: Sandy Litchfield Les Femmes Folles
17 Dec. 2013
What’s Up at Boston Art Galleries Cate McQuaid
15 Jan. 2013
Must See Painting Shows (Jan. 2013) Steven Zevitas
9 Jan. 2013
"Revisions" Opens at Trestle Gallery Press Release
22 Sep. 2012
The Great Outdoors: Landscape Greg Cook
20 Apr. 2006
Brooklyn ArtSeen: Sandy Litchfield Ben LaRocco
11 Feb. 2006
Sandy Litchfield on 1stdibs
Sandy Litchfield on Artsy