Sandy Gherardi is a Washington, D.C. area fine art photographer, who is best known for her Abstract Imagery. Sandy's emphasis is on bold color, repetitive pattern, strong geometric shapes and texture. Primarily self-taught, her interest in photography began with a Nikon School of Photography weekend course in the 1980s. Two decades later, a digital arts course at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. unveiled an exciting new world. Photography is now her passion.
A theater arts major in college, Sandy has always loved all forms of dance, musical theater and directing drama. At age five, she was the tiny tot who attracted a crowd with her spontaneous dancing at the back of a theater. Many decades later, her artistic expression shifted from on and behind the stage to behind the lens.
Today Sandy is compelled to capture and preserve the easily overlooked picture within the picture--hidden abstract beauty that she identifies in ordinary subjects--even in a lowly heap of trash!
Publications & Presentations
DRIVEN TO ABSTRACTION, Abstract Photographic Images by Sandy Gherardi, 2014.
A 70-page coffee table, color, hardback book. Copies are available through the author.
Abstract Photography Workshop. Presented January 2018 at the Joseph Miller Center For the Photographic Arts, Gainesville, VA, in collaboration with Joyce Harman & Jeanne Mitcho.
Abstract Photography Virtual Workshop. Presented January 2023, in collaboration with Joyce Harman, Jeanne Mitcho and Sarah Skerker.
Exhibitions & Collections
Solo Exhibitions: Sandy has been featured at Rise Well Being Center, Reston, VA; Asset Management Group, Fairfax, VA; Long & Foster Realtors, McLean, VA; Dempsey & Co, CPAs, Bull Run Regional Library and Chinn Park Regional Library, Manassas, VA.
Group Exhibitions: In addition to being a finalist at Amazon Web Services AWSomeArt, Sandy's photographs have been juried into thirty-one group art gallery exhibitions, including thirteen consecutive Annual Abstract Exhibits at the Joseph Miller Center for the Photographic Arts, Gainesville, VA; Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; the Art League, Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA; ArtSpace Herndon, Herndon, VA; Nature Visions Photo Expo; Buchanan Partners Art Gallery, Hylton Center for the Performing Arts; Jo Ann Rose Gallery, Reston Community Center, Reston, VA; Ernst Community Cultural Center, Annandale, VA; and the City of Fairfax "Spotlight On the Arts".
Collections: Sandy’s art resides in private and corporate collections, as well as in the permanent collection of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Memberships
The Art League, Alexandria, VA
League of Reston Artists/Reston Photographic Society