The artistic appeal of Edwina Sandys lies in her diverse subject matter. From the sacred to the secular, to the most essential questions about politics and society, she has tackled big ideas with panache, combining the lighthearted and the profound, at once playful and mind provoking. Her clearly recognizable style uses positive and negative images to powerful effect.

Recipient – 1997 United Nations Society of Writers & Artists Award
for Excellence

During the last 30 years Edwina has created art of international acclaim that includes sculpture, paintings, collage and works on paper. Her work has reached a wide audience far beyond the realm of the private collector. Early in her career, for the 1979 United Nations’ Year of the Child, she created three monumental sculptures, which are now installed at UN centers in New York, Geneva and Vienna. A decade later, she used dismantled sections of the Berlin Wall to create an extraordinary sculpture, Breakthrough, now permanently sited at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, where Winston Churchill gave his historic “Iron Curtain” speech.

However, she does not focus solely on political subjects, but also frequently explores the relationships between man and woman. Major works include her series The States of Woman,
and The Marriage Bed, which is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

From her earliest work of social commentary, which began in London in the 1970’s with lively paintings of the vibrant world she inhabited, Edwina showed her own distinctive style, which readily translated into other materials. Most notable of her bronzes is Christa, a female Christ figure
on the cross, created in 1975. After being on display in numerous churches, Christa was installed
at Easter 1984 in New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The media coverage created a worldwide furor and she experienced the double-edged sword of public debate, as both praise and outrage flooded in.

Today her works are mainly large-scale metal sculptures which include her iconic Eve’s Apple and her Sunflower Woman, commissioned by Henry Buhl for his celebrated Sunflower Collection.

A New Yorker by choice and marriage, Edwina Sandys was born and raised in London. In 1969
she considered standing for Parliament, which placed her squarely within her family’s tradition.
Not only was her father the British Cabinet Minister, Duncan Sandys, but her grandfather was Winston Churchill. It is telling that these major political figures were both talented artists. Through her richly varied life experience, Edwina is uniquely situated to create work related to the global issues of our time.

Her work is now reaching a broader audience through the recent airing of the PBS biographical documentary One Bite of the Apple.