Hope Sandrow

A conceptual artist who’s multidisciplinary art practice is her ‘way’ of being; real engagements with the world that inform and direct Sandrow’s artistic vision. In the mediums of still, video, mixed media, installation, sculpture, new media, performance and social practice she creates art works representing the natural history of everyday life to (re)generate discourse on notions of nature, culture, art, identity, gender, science, history, the politics of power and myth. At critical times, such as now, Sandrow’s role is as participant like that of the viewer; more often as Observer in works that involve interaction between artists with the public and the natural world.

First person overviews: “Hope Sandrow” artforum.com (2016); “Hope Sandrow Chance Encounter: Art, Life and Activism” Ecoart in Action (NYU Press 2021). “Art of Change Hope Sandrow” Pollock-Krasner Study Center (2022).

A practice exhibited in her ongoing artist in residence open air studio Shinnecock Hills spacetime that references the social and cultural history in and around Sandrow’s own “backyard” 24/7 (since March 2006). Inspired by a Chance Encounter with a white Padovana cockerel, later named Shinnecock for where they met, while walking amidst Shinnecock Hills painted by William Merritt Chase when he lived, painted here (1893-1900). A study within a micro environment, paralleling the macrocosm Earth. open air studio spacetime is an artist project fiscally sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts (2017). In the realms of the personal and the public: (Re)collecting An American’s Dream (READ) (2006-08); Sketches of Local History Shinnecock Canal Canoe Place (ongoing since 2014); open air studio Silanggana The Fabric of time and space spacetime (2016); founding chair of the Town of Southampton Arts and Culture Committee (ongoing since 2017); Nurturing Reciprocity: Artists in Collaboration (Brianna Hernandez, Jeremy Dennis, Kelly Dennis, Hope Sandrow, 2022 ongoing).The Fabric of time and space spacetime commissioned by US State Department Art in Embassies (2016 – 2018): Sandrow revisited (2016) the sites of an earlier commission timespace to create new works permanently installed (November 2018) at the US Embassy Jakarta. Informed by conversations with Bali Aga and Mangarrai Indigenous weavers, Komodo wood carvers, and World Wildlife Indonesia professionals overseeing Komodo National Park. The installation Shinnecock godt tegn open air studio spacetime (2006-7) at PS1/MOMA was directed by Alanna Heiss. The Sky is Falling open air studio spacetime (2008) consists of18 photographs commissioned by Agnes Gund. Sandrow’s video Sur Rodney (Sur) performing Free Advice open air studio spacetime in the traveling group exhibit Radical Presence curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver at Yerba Buena Center, Walker Art Center, CAMH, Grey Art Gallery, Studio Museum in Harlem (2012-15). The inaugural Parrish Art Museum Platform project Genius Loci open air studio spacetime with Curator Andrea Grover included nine events/installations (Nov 3 2012 – March 2013); the installation Open Air Studio spacetime  The Sky is Falling Against the Grain curated By Lowery Stokes Sims and Elizabeth Kirrane (traveling exhibit originating Museum of Art & Design Sept 2012 – January 2014).  

Earlier site specific commissions and projects range from (1980-1991) “On the Streets” (1978 – 1985) of Manhattan and Pier 34 (1983-84) to the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Hirshhorn Biennial, Museum Studies: Hope and Fear,1985 – 1988) to the art collections of Adriana and Robert Mnuchin (A Force Unknown to the Public, 1986) and Dakis Joannou (Setting for Human Interaction, 1987) to the 68th and 69th Regiment Armories where Modern Art was first exhibited in America (Memories Spaces Time, 1988 – 1999; Artist & Homeless Collaborative (1990 – 1996); The Spirit of Art as Activism: Artist & Homeless Collaborative: Making Art, Reclaiming Lives, (1995). And collaborating with colleagues in Coalition for Freedom of Expression, Visual Aids, Women’s Action Coalition (WAC), Whitney Museum, MOMA. Exhibited in the New-York Historic Society exhibit Art for Change: The Artist & Homeless Collaborative curated by Rebecca Klassen and Laura Mogulescu (December 3 2021 – April 3 2022). To her own Manhattan studio Flag for the Nineties (1992) commissioned by Vera List. And The Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage for Creative Time Material Matters (1995) to the waters offshore New York in Water Life Memories Spaces Time curated by Eugenie Tsai for the Whitney Museum (1998). To those surrounding the Indonesian Islands of Bali, Komodo and Flores where skeletal remains of ancient humanoids were found in timespace (1999 – 2006) for The Nature Conservancy. Eureka spacetime at The Washington Monument in Baltimore curated by Thom Collins for Contemporary Museum (2005 – 6). 

Public collections include:  Metropolitan Museum of Art,  Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New-York Historical Society in NYC; Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC; Houston Museum of Fine Art, Texas; Parrish Art Museum Southampton New York. Sandrow is the recipient of two NEA Fellowships: Artmatters Fellowship; Skowhegan Governors Award. Cited in publications including Artforum, Art in America, Artnews, Bomb, Flash Art, New York Times, Southampton Press, Easthampton Star,Sculpture Magazine, Washington Post. Private collections include Agnes Gund, Sur Rodney Sur, Dakis Joannou, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Vera List, Gracie Mansion, Penny McCall, Adriana and Robert Mnuchin, Stephania and James McClennan, Laura Flanders. 

Photo credit Mark Segal for the Easthampton Star “Hope Sandrow: The Courage to Create Anew” November 11, 2021