Artist Statement

“Dal Poggetto’s paintings embody the vivid, close relation to the landscape of the American West that we can attain. They step past the picture window.”

— Mark Stevens, art critic, writer and co-author of De Kooning: An American Master

The archaic permeates our modern lives—we walk on the archaic; we drink it; we breathe it. It is necessary. It is landscape—sensuous, visceral, alive. As I walk the land known as Montana, something happens to my understanding of art history.

The Euro-American point of view breaks down, the iconic horizon dissolves. Parts, details, surprise from all directions and the circle of the horizon surrounds me.

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Biography

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2020
Points West: A Convergence, Echo Arts, Bozeman, MT
2019
Sandra Dal Poggetto, Aunt Dofe Gallery, Willow Creek, MT
2018
Visions West Contemporary, Denver, CO
2016
Visions West Contemporary, Denver, CO
2014
Montana Museum of Art & Culture, University of Montana, Missoula, MT
2012
Swanson Gallery, Helena, MT
2011
Montana State University, Billings, MT
2010
Aunt Dofe’s Hall of Recent Memory, Willow Creek, MT
2008
Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, WA
2006
Fairbanks Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
2003
Peter Koch Printers, Berkeley, CA
2002
Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT
1996
Beall Park Art Center, Bozeman, MT
Augusta State University, Augusta, GA
1989
Memorial Union Art Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA
1985
Dana Reich Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions

Awards, Grants & Fellowships

2016
Jentel Foundation, Artist Residency, Banner, WY
2014
Playa Invitational Residency Award, Summer Lake, OR
2013
Ucross Foundation, Artist Residency, Sheridan, WY
2003
Ucross Foundation, Artist Residency, Sheridan, WY
Juror’s Choice Award, Art on the Plains 6, Joan Rothfuss, Walker Art Center Permanent Collections Curator, Juror
2000
Pouch Cove Foundation, Artist Residency, St. John’s, Newfoundland
1996
Helena Wurlitzer Fellowship in Painting, Taos, NM
Artist-in-Residence Program, Helena National Forest, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT

Bibliography

Publications About Sandra Dal Poggetto
Articles

2021
Rick Newby, (Fall 2021). High Desert Journal, Fall 2021
2018
Claus, Anja (Fall 2018). “Landscape Art? An Interview with Sandra Dal Poggetto,” Minding Nature, Fall 2018, Volume 11, Number 3, pp. 18-24, featured artist. https://www.humansandnature.org/landscape-art-an-interview-with-sandra-dal-poggetto
2017
Corriel, Michelle (June/July 2017). “Illuminations”, Western Art and Architecture pp. 48-49
2012
Reflections West: Literature, History and Culture of the American West, National Public Radio Montana. Featured writer/artist.
Orion Magazine, July/August, drawings published.
2009
Marie Thibeault and Nicola Courtright, eds. (September 29, 2009) “Leading the Full Life: Balancing Career and Family,” College Art Association. http://www.collegeart.org/features/leadingthefulllife
2008
Corriel, Michele (October, 2008). “Engaging the Senses,” Big Sky Journal p. 60-64.
2006-07
Stevens, Mark. (Fall 2006-Winter 2007) “Tensions, Paradoxes, and Impurities: The Truth of the Matter: Paintings by Sandra Dal Poggetto,” Drumlummon Views, Vol. 1, No. 3.
2006
Donahoe, Emily. (October 12, 2006) “Connected to Nature,” Helena Independent Record.
Pierce, Corey. (February, 2006) “Wild Time at Fairbanks Gallery” The Daily Barometer, Vol. CIX No. 80, p. B3.
1992
Joseph, David. (Spring 1992) “Nature Morte: A Review,” The Gate, Volume 1, Issues 3 & 4, p. 8.
1987
Burkhardt, Dorothy. (March 22,1987) “Critics Choice,” San Jose Mercury News.
1986
Morch, A. (September 8, 1986) “Eight Artists Step to the Fore with ‘Macedonia’ Exhibit,” San Francisco Examiner.
1985
Tarshis, Jerome. (July, 1985) “Jerome’s Unknowns,” San Francisco FOCUS p. 24-27.
Regan, Kate. (February 2, 1985) “Shimmering Rays and a Troubled Lyricism,” The San Francisco Chronicle, (Critics Choice).
Torphy, Will. (January 26, 1985) ARTWEEK, Volume 16, no. 12, p. 12.
1975
Johnson, Charles. The Sacramento Bee.

Publications By Sandra Dal Poggetto
Essays

2015
Basalt “Wildtime”, Volume 10, Number 1, featured artist. College of Arts & Sciences, Eastern Oregon University, Le Grande, Oregon.
2015
Dal Poggetto, Sandra. “Primal Colors.” Center for Humans and Nature, Chicago, IL. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.humansandnature.org/primal-colors-response-132.php
2009-10
The Structurist. An international art and architecture journal, “Breed,” No. 49/50. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
1999
Northern Lights. “Relict,” Volume XIV, No. 3, p.8.
1995-96
Gray’s Sporting Journal. “Duccio In the Eye of the Hunt,” Volume 21, Issue 6.
The Structurist. “In the Eye of the Elk,” No. 35/36 University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Anthologized Essays

2003
Newby, Rick, ed. The New Montana Story: An Anthology. Riverbend Publishing: Helena, Montana.
Zeiss Stange, Mary. Heart Shots: Women Write About Hunting. Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Videos

2015
Dal Poggetto, S. (2015). Primal Colors .
Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkkWk-ogQcs&feature=youtu.be

Education

Sandra Dal Poggetto was born in Sonoma, California, she now lives and works in Helena, Montana.

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Points West No. 5
2020
soft pastel
Blue grouse feathers on paper
8.5 x 8.5 in.

“Sandra Dal Poggetto is reinterpreting the Western American landscape tradition through stunningly beautiful and deeply surprising means.”

— Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

“Sandra Dal Poggetto is reinterpreting the Western American landscape tradition through stunningly beautiful and deeply surprising means.”

— Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

“Dal Poggetto... builds her paintings around tensions, paradoxes and impurities—a truthful reflection of our culture’s complex relationship to the landscape.”

— Mark Stevens, Writer and Co-Author of De Kooning: An American Master, National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize Recipient

“Her colors reveal sounds, her marks tell us where she’s been, and in so doing she allows us to walk away with a taste of wildness.”

— Michele Corriel, Western Art & Architecture

“. . . mutual mimesis.”

— Zoe Larkins, Curatorial Associate, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

“Dal Poggetto’s skills and fine-tuned sensibilities are evident in every stroke... Spontaneous but studied, organic but formally taut, the accumulations of gestures, shapes and layers... of colors and textures are locked into ineffably ‘right’ relationships, yet retain a refreshing sense of animation and spontaneity.”

— Gordon McConnell, Former Senior Curator of the Yellowstone Art Museum

“I think she’s the kind of artist who is making art authentically in her own time...”

— Ben Mitchell, Curator, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

“Sandra Dal Poggetto[‘s]... strong and sensitive paintings... [are] remarkable for their spare evocations of turbulence and search...”

— Kate Regan, Critic's Choice, San Francisco Chronicle

“...an artistic awareness of both Western and Eastern art forms, the large split canvases reveal an image of quiet cultivation and surprising kinetics.”

— Will Torphy, Artweek

“Through the rigor of her art, [Sandra Dal Poggetto] seeks to offer new ways of perceiving, and being with, this actual physical world we share. . . . these tender, expansive, unsettlingly gorgeous works create a poetic space—both spiritual and political—that can help us to live more fully.”

Rick Newby, from his essay, ”To Restore a Wealth That is Wild: Sandra Dal Poggetto's Immersive Art,” High Desert Journal, Winter 2022

Press

Essays by Sandra Dal Poggetto

Primal Colors: Essay

By Sandra Dal Poggetto

Wildtime

By Sandra Dal Poggetto

Relict

By Sandra Dal Poggetto

Duccio in the Eye of the Hunt: Modern Connections between the Chase and Art

By Sandra Dal Poggetto

Landscape Art: An Interview

By Anja Claus

Primal Colors: A Conversation with Sandra Dal Poggetto and Mark Stevens

By Montana Museum of Art and Culture

Illuminations

By Michele Corriel

Sandra Dal Poggetto: An Intercourse with Nature

By Zoe Larkins

An Interview with Sandra Dal Poggetto

By Brandon Reintjes

Tensions, Paradoxes And Impurities: The Truth Of The Matter

By Mark Stevens

Listen to An Excerpt from Sandra Dal Poggetto’s Essay, Relict

By Montana NPR program, Reflections West

Artist Statement

“Dal Poggetto’s paintings embody the vivid, close relation to the landscape of the American West that we can attain. They step past the picture window.”

The archaic permeates our modern lives—we walk on the archaic; we drink it; we breathe it. It is necessary. It is landscape—sensuous, visceral, alive. As I walk the land known as Montana, something happens to my understanding of art history.

The Euro-American point of view breaks down, the iconic horizon dissolves. Parts, details, surprise from all directions and the circle of the horizon surrounds me.

Biography

Sandra Dal Poggetto was born in Sonoma, California, she now lives and works in Helena, Montana.

“Sandra Dal Poggetto is reinterpreting the Western American landscape tradition through stunningly beautiful and deeply surprising means.”

“Sandra Dal Poggetto is reinterpreting the Western American landscape tradition through stunningly beautiful and deeply surprising means.”

“Dal Poggetto... builds her paintings around tensions, paradoxes and impurities—a truthful reflection of our culture’s complex relationship to the landscape.”

“Her colors reveal sounds, her marks tell us where she’s been, and in so doing she allows us to walk away with a taste of wildness.”

“. . . mutual mimesis.”

“I think she’s the kind of artist who is making art authentically in her own time...”

“Sandra Dal Poggetto[‘s]... strong and sensitive paintings... [are] remarkable for their spare evocations of turbulence and search...”

“...an artistic awareness of both Western and Eastern art forms, the large split canvases reveal an image of quiet cultivation and surprising kinetics.”

“Through the rigor of her art, [Sandra Dal Poggetto] seeks to offer new ways of perceiving, and being with, this actual physical world we share. . . . these tender, expansive, unsettlingly gorgeous works create a poetic space—both spiritual and political—that can help us to live more fully.”

Press

Essays by Sandra Dal Poggetto

Primal Colors: Essay

Wildtime

Relict

Duccio in the Eye of the Hunt: Modern Connections between the Chase and Art

Other Articles & Interviews

Landscape Art: An Interview

Primal Colors: A Conversation with Sandra Dal Poggetto and Mark Stevens

Illuminations

Sandra Dal Poggetto: An Intercourse with Nature

An Interview with Sandra Dal Poggetto

Tensions, Paradoxes And Impurities: The Truth Of The Matter

Listen to An Excerpt from Sandra Dal Poggetto’s Essay, Relict

Contact Sandra Dal Poggetto

Join Sandra's Mailing List