248 Utah Street
San Francisco, CA 94103 USA
Saturday, September 6, 2014–Saturday, October 25, 2014
Reception for the artist: Saturday, September 13, 4–6 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 13, 3 pm
Brian Gross Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of oil paintings and pastels by Southern California artist Ruth Pastine. Investigating the perception of color, light, and space, Pastine uses subtle and nuanced color relationships to redefine and transcend our visual experience. Pastine’s vibrant new series explores the interplay between saturated and subtle color, creating an optical interaction that questions one’s perceptual field. MIND’S EYE / Sense Certainty Series will be on view through October 25, 2014.
Working in complementary hues within a limited color system, Pastine builds numerous layers of shifting color, revealing new and undiscovered visual phenomena within the work. She paints with countless small brushstrokes, developing subtle gradations of vibrant magentas and cool blues that transcend the canvas with a seamless resonance. Using a methodical approach of repetition and serial application of the pigment, Pastine is able to stretch the limits of her palette, successfully dematerializing the object into pure color and quality of light. Ruth states that there is, “an essential tension in my work, an ever-present exchange and dialogue between materiality and immateriality, presence and absence, matter and light, surface and depth.”
In contrast to previous series, Sense Certainty utilizes an internal linear structure to reinforce the viewers’ authentic assessment of the colors. The soft “edges” between hues, generate an added depth and dimension of color and light, enhancing our perception of each separate color. The vibrant juxtaposition of varying shades and temperatures dictates that individual attention be paid to each parallel hue. Initially negating one another, these contiguous values become reaffirmed and more defined in one’s visual field. This sense-certainty of color allows the viewer to experience these diverse and distinct tones with absolute sincerity.
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, and is included in many public and corporate collections, including Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 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; Lakeshore Entertainment, Los Angeles, CA; Lehman Brothers/Townsend Analytics, New York, NY; Qualcomm, San Diego, CA; and UNICEF, New York, NY. Earlier this year, Pastine had her first museum survey show titled Attraction: 1993 – 2013 at Museum of Art & History Lancaster (MOAH), CA, with exhibition catalog essays by Donald Kuspit and Peter Frank. She currently lives and works in Ojai, California. This is her fifth solo exhibition with Brian Gross Fine Art.