Sandy Walker's Lyrical Landscapes Return to New York at Elizabeth Harris Gallery

Sandy Walker's exhibition 'In Nature' at Elizabeth Harris Gallery from February 7 to March 9, 2013 marks a notable return to New York after decades centered in the Bay Area. The show features landscapes, human figures, and calligraphic works in ink, oil, and woodcut, blending representational expressionism with ecological themes. Many pieces depict Washington State terrain near his cabin or plein air sketches from Arizona, balancing visceral energy with pictorial intelligence. Walker's style draws from American pastoral traditions like Milton Avery, Neil Welliver, and Alex Katz, fused with Abstract Expressionist bravura and Asian aesthetics. His career began in New York in the 1960s with studies at Columbia and the New York Studio School, followed by exhibitions at Grace Borgenicht Gallery, but he had been largely absent from the city since a 2004 show at Wooster Arts Space. The works often anthropomorphize landscapes, as seen in 'Human Nature III' (2010) with torso-like hills, or 'IJ Bar Song II' (2011) with jagged horizon lines suggesting recumbent figures. His approach evokes pantheism through direct observation of wilderness areas, emphasizing a lifelong exploration of lyrical, representational expressionism.