profiles / exhibitions / alumni / illustration
October 25, 2013
Writer: Mike Winder

Razzle Dazzle’s Aftermath

Erik Mark Sandberg (BFA 02)

For Los Angeles-based artist Erik Mark Sandberg, the world’s supersaturation of alluring imagery presents contradictions ripe for exploration.

“I was on my way to the Sierra Nevada mountains recently and thought, Gosh, look at that pristine pastoral landscape, when suddenly my view was obstructed by a billboard advertising Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme being available at the next gasoline station,” says Sandberg with a laugh. “And I thought Wow, those look good and I do need fuel.”

Sandberg’s clients have included United Airlines, Absolut Vodka and TBWA Paris and his work has appeared in publications like Rolling Stone, The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. And if the Illustration alumnus' work seems familiar, it may be because one of his “Hairy Children”—the artist’s metaphorical victims of “razzle dazzle” visual bombardment—graces the cover of the current ArtCenter at Night catalog as well as ads currently appearing on the L.A. Metro Gold Line.

These days he is busily preparing There’s a Trapdoor in the Sun, his first pop-up solo exhibition in Los Angeles—which will include installations, sculptures, film and large-scale photographs. “That’s one nice thing about exhibiting in L.A.,” says Sandberg of Trapdoor, which opens this coming winter. “I don’t have to ship them overseas, so I can do larger scale works.”