Ruth Pastine

Press Release

Brian Gross Fine Art is pleased to announce Depths, an online exhibition of new oil paintings on paper by Southern California artist Ruth Pastine, live online Thursday, May 14, 2020. Continuing her exploration of subtle and nuanced color relationships, the lush tones of Pastine’s works recall the feelings of meditation and reflective investigation elicited by this time of social isolation while also brimming with luminous energy. The exhibition will continue through June 25, 2020.

Known for her large oil paintings of seamless color transitions achieved through the layering of countless brush strokes, Pastine now applies her medium to a paper surface to remarkable effect. Compositionally, these works are the latest step in a direction she has been taking for several years, where the broad areas of subtly transitioned color are now bordered by bands of contrasting tones. An earlier phase in this evolution can be seen in Witness 5 V9048 (Blue Orange Light) Witness Series, 2016, now in the collection of SFMOMA. Full of radiant light and vivid tonalities, in the words of the artist these works “explore and question ideas of isolation, uncertainty, and confronting the unknown,” while “affording solace from an easily distracted state of mind and a mystical escape from the complexity of pressing global concerns.”

Ruth Pastine received her B.F.A. from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, and her M.F.A. from Hunter College of the City University of New York. She has exhibited widely in the United States and Japan. In 2014, Ruth Pastine had her first museum survey show titled Attraction: 1993–2013 at the Museum of Art & History Lancaster (MOAH), CA. Her works are included in many public, private, and corporate collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), CA; Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego—MCASD, La Jolla, CA; Museum of Art & History Lancaster (MOAH), CA; AXA Art, Cologne, Germany; Brookfield Properties, Ernst & Young Plaza, Los Angeles, CA; Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, CA; Goodwill Industries International, San Francisco, CA; Lehman Brothers/Townsend Analytics, New York, NY; Qualcomm, San Diego, CA; UNICEF, New York, NY; and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA. This is her seventh solo exhibition with Brian Gross Fine Art.