Randye Sandel
Artist
Randye Sandel is a Los Angeles based artist whose career spans diverse themes and styles. Growing up in San Fernando, one of the original mission cities, she found early encouragement from her first collector, John Cisneros, who supported her artistic journey until his passing two years ago. After earning a BA in Latin from UCLA, where artist Tony Berlant's encouragement proved pivotal in her decision to pursue art, Sandel's early work reflected her archaeological interests through fantastical interpretations of classical architecture. Her painting Men as Gods was notably featured in Wolfgang Petersen's film Shattered, starring Tom Berenger and Bob Hoskins, serving as a backdrop for the movie's murder scene.Her artistic evolution includes significant exhibitions at the Riverside Museum, California State University Northridge, Barnsdall Art Park, and Space Gallery, with series ranging from ethereal realism in Under the Big Top to urban narratives in LA Blues and Valley Noir. In Nightlights, she offered her own dark interpretations of San Fernando Valley street scenes. Her 2014-2015 LA River series, which maintains a dreamy yet visionary quality, recently gained recognition when one work was selected for the Winter 2025 cover of The American Psychologist Journal. Currently, Sandel focuses on environmental themes through her Wildfires series and ongoing work on The Floods, continuing her practice of reimagining and interpreting the world around her.
Randye Sandel has explored diverse themes throughout her career, beginning with a focus on structural composition before delving into subjects that captured her imagination. Her early archaeological interests manifested in fantastical interpretations of ancient Greek and Roman temples, exhibited at the Riverside Museum and California State University, Northridge. Sandel's work evolved to explore reimagined natural elements, showcased at Barnsdall Art Park and Space Gallery, with the Barnsdall exhibition featured on Channel 7 Eyewitness News. Her later series embraced ethereal realism in exhibitions like Under the Big Top and Strange Sightings, while also pursuing more realistic subjects in LA Blues, Valley Noir, and Nightlights. The LA River series (2014-2015) represents one of her most realistic works, though it maintains a visionary quality. Currently, her focus has shifted to global environmental concerns, with series like Wildfires and The Floods continuing her practice of subtly altering reality for surreal effect.
