Photo credit: Gary Brewer
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“…like a night wind in the pines or like the sea in the dark the echo of everything that has ever been spoken still spilling its one syllable between earth and silence” ~W.S. Merwin
by Gary Brewer
When words fail us, we have images to tell our stories. It is a love poem to life to see and feel the presence of nature and to share it in brushstrokes of color guided by the pulse of our heart animating the intricately considered wonders of the world. Astrid Preston’s work revels in the spiritual beauty of nature. Her paintings whisper to the pines, caress the water, and swim through the clouds; our eyes are like a soul disembodied, we inhabit each part of the images. Pleasure becomes a profound presence; the methods and inventions in paint, of being able to capture in pigment on canvas – light, water, trees, clouds – and to poetically play with the systems of seeing. She communicates the emotions and feelings she has for nature in beautifully realized paintings, but she also playfully deconstructs the methods of visual language, exploring the minds capacity to make sense of images reduced to matter that still communicate her vision.
Photo credit: Gary Brewer
Thought, feeling, perception, consciousness – to look is to feel the visceral physicality of the world. To express feeling, the love for a thing and the love of describing it with paint on canvas, we look and see. But to capture the feeling in your gut, to express it with your heart, and to explore the life of the mind’s ability to use pigment to describe it in the myriad possibilities that oil paint grants us is ‘Art’. Astrid Preston makes images of the things she loves communicated in visual haiku, a shorthand impression of her subject. To this she adds the intellectual pleasure of deconstructing the vernacular, of ‘pixelating’ the image, and using a patchwork of physically dense squares and then inscribing four lines into the thick patches of paint in horizontal and vertical orientations. The patchwork of paint matching the colors of the scene represented deconstructs the image; delighting in our mind’s ability to still read the painting. It is an updated impressionist/pointillist approach that references digital media, but is wholly about the pleasure of paint and its protean capacity to make a readable image.
Astrid said of her work, “I have always had a difficult time communicating with words, it is still difficult for me to even write a thank you note. Painting is a way for me to express emotion; it is something I feel in the second brain in my gut. When I feel a connection to a place, it is an emotional connection. I think about my paintings as a form of Haiku, to capture an emotional impression of a time and place in a general language of color and form.”
Geometry has been an anchor for Astrid from early on in her career. In college she began as a math major and found that the logic of geometry always had a stabilizing effect on her. Later, she worked for her parents who were architects; doing architectural renderings of the homes and buildings they were designing. The patchwork grid that she employs to pixelate her current painting is a reference to the graphic symbol in architectural rendering of dirt/earth as opposed to gravel, plants or concrete.
In her early work, she would employ chromatic shifts in color within the landscape, gradient shifts in tone or color within simple abstract compositions of squares or rectangles. It was a way to ground the work and have a classical structure that kept the paintings focused and controlled. She also painted formal gardens with the strict geometries of hedges and rows giving the paintings a rigorous grounding in formal structures. Her current work has rectangular areas of physically dense patchworks of paint that are more brazen: they wink at one with the joy of a painter who has mastered her vision and is free to playfully revel in the plasticity of the medium, to explore the way one can break down the image and still capture and convey the essence of the vision. It is deconstruction as a way to show us the mechanics of perception, but not in the cold clinical grayness of academia but in the sensual and emotional pleasure of seeing,
I asked her about her use of geometry in nature, if, like Cezanne whom she loves, it was a way to bring a classical order to landscape. “In my earlier work it was a way to ground the image, it was a kind of safe place that I could feel comfortable within. Now in my pixelated patchwork of squares of paint, it has more to do with quantum physics, with the ideas about the uncertainty principle, that things are not as stable as we think, that theoretically matter can shift from one thing to another. It is a way to speak to that and it is also a way to animate the paintings.”
Photo credit: Gary Brewer
Her paintings are lush symphonic harmonies of color. The way that she renders her subjects, trees, clouds, water are with a light touch, the shapes and forms captured in a generalized way. This gives her freedom to push the color chords and their effects on spatial reading. Her works have proceeded from early paintings where she employed stricter ordering principles such as geometry, to latter works where she used deeply detailed approaches to painting, filling vast canvases with images of the forest, an immersive gestalt of the forest canopy filling the canvas from edge to edge. It is interesting to see that the geometry she employed early on to ground the work in something she knew well, is now a means to break out of the confines of strict representation; to playfully deconstruct the methods of depiction and allow the pleasure of paint as material to add a dimensionality to the work both formally and subjectively.
We spoke about these painterly patchworks of disruption within the visual field and the visual language, “In certain paintings the pixelated passages communicate the visceral physicality of the scenes with more emotional truth. When one looks at the areas where the image is painted clearly one can see and read the image easily. But when one looks at the area where the physically thick patchwork occurs it has a visual density that is more emotionally true. I think that the reflections off of the relief of the paint, the light reflecting off of the high points and the shadows that they cast, stirs something in our brains and gut that feels truer, that conveys the physically of the scene in an emotionally deeper and richer way.”
To paint is to play with the magic of consciousness. That we can make marks and represent the world about us is a miraculous representation of mind. It reflects the visual paradigms that we store in our memory that allows us to “re-cognize” the world. That we can invent new ways to communicate information, that our imaginations can change the future through language creation and chart and explore novel experiences is a form of magic.
Painting is a living medium. It is encoded with the thoughts and feelings of the artist that engages in a symbiotic relationship with the consciousness of another; it is living memory embedded in matter. Astrid Preston’s paintings connect with deep emotions and feelings in the body. There is a soulful connection to both the subject matter and the subject of painting. Her paintings revel in the living language of art, the quicksilver fluidity of language and of our constant invention of new ways to express and communicate feeling. She surrenders to the swoon of physical experience with nature and transforms it through the heart and mind into the language of Art.
Portrait of Astrid Preston (and many paintings) at her recent exhibition at the Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
Represented by Craig Krull Gallery in Los Angeles
Photo credit: Gary Brewer
Works by Astrid Preston are currently on view in “Poetics of Nature”, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA, September 7, 2017 – April 14, 2018. Coming in 2018: a solo show at R.B.Stevenson Gallery in La Jolla, CA
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No genre of painting could be more anodyne than flowers, right? Perhaps, but the floral history of art brims with vigor, passion, and even fury, as we know from vanitas still lifes and expressionist bouquets. Dan McCleary and Astrid Preston are known for their intimate, transportive subjects – McCleary for his stolid figures, Preston for her delicate gardens – but they stir drama and sensuosity out of virtuosic form and technique. The two artists’ recent emphasis on flowers (coincident, but perhaps triggered by the pandemic’s social muting) focuses them both on familiar forms but not-so-familiar obsessions.
Peter Frank, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art
August 2021
“Los Angeles based Swedish born painter Astrid Preston has long explored and invented new frontiers of an aesthetic naturalism, elegantly remaking urban and rural wildness into provocative, soul satisfying tapestries of life and parkland utopias. Her work has consistently taken technical and philosophical risks, achieved unique depth, and established Ms. Preston as one of America’s most important contemporary landscape painters.” continue reading
Michael Charles Tobias, Forbes
January 2013
“There is a war in these paintings – for Preston bare branches are soldiers and bushes a cemetery. These simple elements tell stories, create moods and speak of the artist’s inner life as she reveals our outer world in a way we have not seen before.”
Reesey Shaw
Director, Lux Art Institute
2008
“The view is utterly believable as a mirror of nature but halfway hallucinatory at the same time. All of her work has this quality. Even the new paintings, so detailed in their presentations of hedges and plants, appear both real and unreal.”
Robert L. Pincus, San Diego Union-Tribune
February 24, 2008
“As a painter, Preston understands that a landscape framed in the mind’s eye is an abstraction, but that a landscape painting is a visual abstraction of that thought. Her work is allegorical, metaphysical, and sometimes surreal….”
Craig Krull
Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
2002
“Using light, patterning, and crisp juxtapositions, as tools, her paintings present a complex notion of the idealized physical world. Although completely devoid of human beings, they are philosophical considerations of our visual perceptions that probe notions of time, perspective, and memory.”
Michael Duncan
catalogue essay, 2002
“…stand back, and we enjoy the illusion of observing nature. Come close, and all we see is a rendering in paint of the effects of light and shade. Preston has brought us in so close in these new paintings that the first option recedes even as our eye is occupied with the second.”
Peter Clothier
catalogue essay, 2008
Books & Catalogues |
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FOR THE TREESCraig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
BETWEEN WORLDSCraig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
ECHOING LIGHTR.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
UPSIDE DOWN WORLDCraig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
ON REFLECTIONSCraig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
PLEIN AIR PAST and PRESENTA collaborative exhibition by The San Diego Museum of |
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ASTRID PRESTON
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RE(A)D FORESTApokrif, 2004 |
ASTRID PRESTON PAINTINGS2002 |
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ASTRID PRESTON NEAR PARADISELaguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA |
Astrid Preston was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She received a B.A. in English Literature from UCLA in 1967. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Asia, including solo shows at the Laguna Art Museum, Saginaw Art Museum, Wichita Falls Museum, Ella Sharp Museum and Arts College International. She has had articles and reviews of her work published in the Los Angeles Times, Art in America and ArtForum. Preston received an NEA Fellowship Grant in Painting in 1987 and an artist residency from Lux Art Institute in 2008. Her work is in many public and private collections, including, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, UCLA Hammer Museum, McNay Art Museum, Oakland Museum and Nevada Museum of Art. She lives and works in Santa Monica, California, where she is represented by the Craig Krull Gallery.
2023 | Astrid Preston: For The Trees, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2021 | Between Worlds, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2019 | New Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2018 | Echoing Light, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
2017 | Upside Down World, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Poetics of Nature, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA | |
2016 | Into Nature - Astrid Preston / Sasha Koozel Reibstein (Two Person Show), R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
2015 | On Reflections, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Coming to the Edge, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA | |
2013 | Astrid Preston solo exhibition, S.C.A.P.E., Corona del Mar, CA |
New Territory, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
2012 | Astrid Preston: Small Forest, GRACIE & Project Room 1, Pop up show & sale, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA |
2010 | east west spring fall, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2009 | Birdwatching, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Paintings & Drawings, The Colburn School, Los Angeles, CA | |
2008 | New Paintings, AndrewShire Gallery, Singapore |
Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
Artist in Residence, Lux Art Institute, Encinitas, CA | |
2006 | Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2004 | Dreamscapes, Baxter Chang Patri, San Francisco, CA |
Leaves, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
2003 | Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Being in Place, Wichita Falls Museum & Art Center, Wichita Falls, TX | |
2002 | Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Landscapes of the Mind, Cando Art Center, Cando, ND; Custer County Art Center, Miles City, MT; James Memorial Center for Visual Art, Williston, ND | |
Astrid Preston, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA | |
Astrid Preston: small paintings, Lisa Coscino Gallery, Pacific Grove, CA | |
2001 | Landscapes of the Mind, The Arts Center, Jamestown, ND; Dickinson State University Gallery, Dickinson, ND; Northwest Art Center, Minot State University, Minot, ND; Bismarck State College Gallery, Bismarck, ND |
Astrid Preston, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA | |
2000 | Landscapes: A State of Mind, MSC Forsyth Center Galleries, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX |
Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
Paintings, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA | |
1999 | Red River Valley Museum, Vernon, TX |
Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA | |
Recent Landscapes, St. Matthews Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA | |
In Perspective, Arts College International, San Diego, CA | |
1998 | Paintings, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA |
Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson, MI (2 person) | |
Landscapes, Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI | |
1997 | Gallery Foret Noire, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan |
Paintings, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA | |
1994 | Astrid Preston, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA |
1991 | New Paintings, Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
1989 | New Paintings, Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
1987 | Near Paradise, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA |
New Paintings and Drawings, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego, CA | |
Recent Paintings and Drawings, Krygier/Landau Contemp. Art, Los Angeles, CA | |
1986 | Night Paintings, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego, CA |
1985 | New Paintings and Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
New Paintings and Drawings, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego, CA | |
1984 | New Paintings and Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
1983 | New Paintings and Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
1982 | City of Angels, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA |
1981 | Landscapes, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
1979 | Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
1977 | Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
1976 | Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA |
1974 | Recent Paintings and Drawings, Gallery 707, Los Angeles, CA |
2024 | Spring 2024, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
2023 | The Flower Show, L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, CA |
Uncharted Terrain: Imagined Landscapes: Hilary Brace, David Eddington, Astrid Preston, Vita Art Center, Ventura, CA | |
Surreal Women, Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA | |
Color and Form, Tufenkian Fine Arts, Glendale, CA | |
2022 | Emsemble, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
On The Edge LA Art 1970-90s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection, Armenian Museum of America, Watertown, MA | |
Nocturnal Sun, S.C.A.P.E., Corona del Mar, CA | |
Multiple Insights, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA | |
2021 | Seeing Things, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
The Edge LA Art 1970-90s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA |
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Sky Space Time Change, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA | |
Decade by Decade: Women Artists of California, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA | |
2020 | that's what artists do, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
Antidote to Noise: Four Voices, curated by Peter Frank, Castelli Art Space, Los Angeles, CA | |
2019 | re•col•lec•tion, Vita Art Center, Ventura, CA |
Mindshift, LAVA Projects, Alhambra, CA | |
Made in California, Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art, CSUSB, San Bernardino, CA | |
40 Years of Art at Michael’s, The Gallery @ Michael’s, Santa Monica, CA | |
Untitled (house) The Diane and Browne Goodwin Collection, Illinois State Museum, Lockport, IL | |
Women on the Rise 2019, Vita Art Center, Ventura, CA | |
2018 | Lazy Susan V: Human/Nature, LAVA Projects, Alhambra, CA |
2017 | The Nature of Jungles, William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA |
2016 | Et in Arcadia Ego, New Museum Los Gatos; Traveled to William Rolland Gallery, Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA |
Measure, Gesture, Form: Modern and Contemporary Drawings from a Recent Gift, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR | |
2015 | Above Ground, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
2014 | Portraits of the Garden, Sturt Haaga Gallery at Descanso Gardens, La Canada Flintridge, CA |
2013 | A little snow..., Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Outside: Selections from the Doug Simay Collection, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA | |
Joan Joan Joan! One Subject, Many Artists, John Wayne Airport, CA | |
2012 | Contemporary Realism from the Permanent Collection, Weisman Museum, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA |
Breaking in Two: A Provocative Vision of Motherhood, Arena 1, Santa Monica, CA | |
2011 | 5X5 an Invitational, Westmont Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA |
Speak for the Trees, House of Balsamic, Irvine, CA | |
Speak for the Trees, S.C.A.P.E., Corona del Mar, CA | |
Gallery Selections 2011, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA | |
2010 | Neither Model nor Muse: Women as Artists, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX |
Meeting New Works: Recent Acquisitions at LBMA, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA | |
Side by Side, The Colburn School, Los Angeles, CA | |
2008 | Emphasis Santa Monica, curated by Bruria Finkel, Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery, S.M., CA |
Plein Air Past and Present, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA | |
2007 | then + now: Women Artists of Southern California, curated by Bruria Finkel, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Echoes: Women Inspired by Nature, curated by Betty Ann Brown & Linda Vallejo, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA | |
2006 | Distinctive Artists of Southern California, LAX & Ontario Airports, CA |
Art Healing, A. Preston & M. Merz, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore | |
Good to Go, Newspace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
2005 | Trains & Trees, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA |
Blue, Baxter Chang Patri Fine Art, San Francisco, CA | |
California Landscapes, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA | |
Santa Monica Originals, curated by Bruria Finkel, Arena 1, Santa Monica, CA | |
2004 | New California Realism, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA |
Shakespeare as Muse, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR | |
2003 | Omnivores, Michaels, Santa Monica, CA |
2000 | Landscape Not Forgotten, Wm D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA |
1998 | Arte actual en Los Angeles, Fine Arts Gallery, Univ. of Madrid, Spain |
Enduring Landscape, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, TN | |
1997 | Arte actual en Los Angeles, Sala de Exposiciones de la Excma, Cuenca, Spain |
Real, Is it?, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA | |
1996 | City of Vapor, Tatistcheff/Rogers, Santa Monica, CA |
Frequencies of Nature: Part II, K. T. Carter & Assoc., St. Leo, FL; Pasco-Hernando Comm. College, Dade City and New Port Richey, FL; Melvin Art Gallery, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL; South Florida Community College, Avon Park, FL | |
LA Current: The Full Spectrum, UCLA Hammer Museum of Art, Rental and Sales Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
Time Splits Open: 15 Narratives, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA | |
LA Current: The Female Perspective, UCLA Hammer Museum of Art, Rental and Sales Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
Paintings of the New Landscape, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA | |
1995 | Landscape: The Continuum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
1994 | Holiday Group Show, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA |
Southern California: The Conceptual Landscape, Madison Arts Center, Madison, WI | |
A Sense of Place, The Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences, Santa Monica, CA | |
Greiger. Preston. Wudl, Jerrold Burchman Contemp. Art, Santa Barbara, CA | |
1992 | The Landscape Revisited: Romantic Visions by Contemporary California Artists, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA |
1991 | Personal Mythologies, Marc Richards Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
The Edge of Night, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA | |
The Spiritual Landscape, Biota Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
1990 | Nightscapes, FHP Hippodrome Gallery, Long Beach, CA |
1988 | Landscape/Common Ground: A Continuity of Spirit, Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
Seoul Olympic Memorial, 1988 Int’l Continental Artists Exhibition, Printemps, Korea and Tong Art Museum, Taegu, Korea | |
The Cultivated Landscape, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA | |
California Landscape Art: Plein Art to Present, Downey Museum of Art, CA | |
1987 | Present Perspectives: 1975-1985, Fresno Art Center, Fresno, CA |
1986 | Southern California Monotypes: The Singular Image, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, CA |
Landscapes/Elements, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
Landscape/Seascape/Cityscape, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans and New York Academy of Fine Arts, NY | |
1985 | The Electric Cat, San Diego Natural History Museum, CA |
Artists Look at Architecture, Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco, CA | |
A Change of Art, Bank of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA | |
1984 | American Landscape Painting, Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, CA |
Significant Others, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego, CA | |
Los Angeles and the Palm Tree: Image of a City, ARCO Center for Visual Art, Los Angeles, CA | |
A Broad Spectrum: Contemporary LA Painters & Sculptors ‘84, Design Center of Los Angeles, CA | |
1983 | Houses, University Art Gallery, California State University, Hayward, CA |
The Los Angeles Postcard Project, Part I, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
Attention California Artists, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA | |
1982 | Permanent Collection, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA |
The Magic Show, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA | |
Drawings by Painters, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Mandeville Art Gallery, UCSD; and the Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA | |
1981 | Locations, California State College, San Bernardino, CA |
Elegant Night, Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA | |
Drawing: Personal Definitions, San Diego State University Art Gallery, San Diego, CA | |
1980 | Seven from Los Angeles, Aaron Berman Gallery, New York, NY |
Contemporary Masters, Claremont Graduate School, Libra Library, Claremont, CA | |
Invitational Drawings and Watercolor Exhibition, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
Unstretched Surfaces-Charles Hill, Tom Holland, Astrid Preston, College of the Siskiyous Art Gallery, Shasta, CA | |
Contemporaries: 17 Artists, Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA | |
Southern California Drawings, Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT | |
1979 | Drawings, University Art Gallery, Cal State U. Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA |
Newspace in San Diego, San Diego State University Art Gallery, San Diego, CA | |
Los Angeles-Toronto Exchange Show, A.C.T., Toronto, Canada | |
1977 | Shades of Gray: A Drawing Survey, Malone Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, L.A., CA |
Drawing: Various Approaches, Fine Arts Gallery, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA | |
A Point of View-Recent Work by Four Los Angeles Artists, The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, CA | |
24 Southern California Women Artists, Cerritos College Art Gallery, Norwalk, CA | |
1976 | American Artists ’76: A Celebration, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX |
1975 | Drawings, Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
Group Show, Broxton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | |
1974 | Annual Juried Show, Palos Verdes Art Museum, Palos Verdes, CA |
2008 | Lux Art Institute, Encinitas, CA |
NEA Fellowship Grant in Painting, 1987. |
“Public Announcements/Private Conversations,” Publication project of Women’s Graphic Center, NEA Grant for production of limited edition print, LA, 1982-3. |
Mural Competition Award, CHEER, Children’s Hospital Walls Competition, Los Angeles, Mural located in McAlister Building, Children’s Hospital, 5th floor. |
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Purchase Award, 1975, 23rd All City Art Festival. |
2018 | Robert L. Pincus, "Freezing Flux: Art and Artifice in Astrid Preston's Paintings ("Astrid Preston Echoing Light"), at R.B. Stevenson Gallery, June 2018 |
2017 | Gary Brewer, "Astrid Preston; Between Earth and Silence", ART AND CAKE (artandcakela.com), Dec. 28. |
Jody Zellen, "Astrid Preston, Upside Down World at Craig Krull Gallery", ART AND CAKE (artandcakela.com), Nov. 10. | |
Lita Barrie, "Pixelation Breathes Life into Landscape Painting" ("Astrid Preston Upside Down World")", ART Là-bas (artla-bas.blogspot.com), October 13. | |
John O'Hern, "Et in Arcadia Ego", American Art Collector, April, p. 46-51. | |
2013 | John Seed, “Astrid Preston: New Territory at Craig Krull Gallery,” Huffpost Arts & Culture, Feb. 13. |
Michael Charles Tobias, “New Territories: Artist Astrid Preston Celebrates the Earth in a Landmark Nature Exhibition,” Forbes.com, January, 31 | |
Previews, “Astrid Preston: New Territory,” Artweek.LA, January 21. | |
2011 | Constance Mallison, “Astrid Preston: “east west spring fall,” art ltd., Jan/Feb, p.25-26. |
2010 | Michael Shaw, “Exhibitions, Continuing and Recommended,” ArtScene, November, p.18-19. |
Michael Shaw, “November's Top Exhibitions in the Western United States,” The Huffington Post, Nov. 19. | |
2008 | Leah Ollman, “Scientific Lens on Shrubbery,” Los Angeles Times, May. |
Robert L. Pincus, “’Plein Air Past and Present’ showcases continuity in painting,” The San Diego Union-Tribune, February 24, p. E2-3. | |
Adam Kaye, “Plein air artist sets up easel in Encinitas,” North County Times, Feb. 19, p. B-1 & B-7. | |
Marcia Manna, “The Nature Lover,” The San Diego Union-Tribune North County, Feb. 7-13, p.1. | |
2006 | Susan Heeger, “The Inner and Outer Landscapes,” Los Angeles Times West, April 16, p. 32-35. |
Mike Vensel, “Astrid Preston. Art,” interview, kittenmag.com. | |
2003 | Anne Valdespino, “This new art installation is bearing fruit,” Los Angeles Times, May 22, p.E21. |
Alex Worman, “L.A. Confidential,” Artnet, September 12. | |
1999 | David Pagel, Art Reviews, Los Angeles Times, September 10. |
David Lewinson, “Astrid Preston at Arts College Int’l,” ArtWeek, August. | |
1998 | Kate Milano, “Preston’s Gardens,” Coast Orange County, v.8, December, p.69. |
Terrence Rogers, “City of Vapor,” American Artist, July, p.28-37,72-73. | |
Orville O. Clarke, Jr., “Astrid Preston,” ArtScene, December, p.11-12. | |
1997 | Suzanne Muchnic, “City of Vapor,” ARTnews, February, p.122. |
Susan Heeger, “No Watering Required,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 19, p.24-25. | |
1996 | Barbara L. Fredricksen, “Exhibit’s theme gets back to nature,” Pasco Times, September 6, p.5. |
Kim Irwin, “Canvassing the Westside,” Daily Breeze, May 12, p.B1 & B2. | |
Doree Dunlap, “The Golden Land,” OCWeekly, March, 8-14. | |
1992 | Elenore Wells, “Landscape of the Soul,” Visions, v.6, no.2, Fall, 1992. |
1991 | Heather Lineberry, “California Landscapes,” Art of California, vol.4, no.2, March, p.10-11. |
1990 | Marlena Donohue, Review, Art in America, v.78, no.4, April 1990, p.272-273. |
1989 | Orville O. Clark, Jr., “The Jan Turner Gallery,” So. California Home & Garden, July 1989, p.32-38. |
Merle Schipper, “Astrid Preston: Living Landscapes,” Angeles, June, p.40-42. | |
Orville O. Clark, Jr., Review, Home & Garden, March 1989, p.57. | |
1987 | Robert L. Pincus, Review, Art In America, V.75, no.10, October 1987, P.191. |
Susan Freudenheim, Review, Artforum, September 1987, p.136. | |
Leah Goldman, Review, Los Angeles Times (S.D. Edition), Calendar, July 3. | |
Robert L. Pincus, Review, San Diego Union, Currents, June 11, 1987, P.E8. | |
Merle Schipper, Review, ARTnews, May 1987. p.50. | |
1985 | Suzanne Muchnic, Review, Los Angeles Times, June 21. |
Peter Clothier, “Matters of Life and Death,” L.A. Weekly, June 24-July4, p.57. | |
Robert L. Pincus, Review, San Diego Union, March 11, p.D4. | |
Robert McDonald, Review, Artweek, March 6, p.3. | |
1984 | Suzanne Muchnic, “ARCO Finale is Awash in Whimsy,” Los Angeles Times, August, p.1. |
Orville O. Clark, Jr., Review, Images & Issues, May/June, p.55. | |
Laura Boucher, “Free Spirits, Painters Brush Up for Community Project,” Evening Outlook, June 1, p.A1 and Focus Magazine. | |
Marlena Donohue, Review, Los Angeles Times, February 10. | |
1983 | Merle Schipper, Review, Images & Issues, September/October. |
Ron Sequeria, “Houses Open for Inspection,” The Pioneer, November 15, p.5. | |
Joanne Burnstein, “California Color,” Artweek, April 23, p.24. | |
Suzanne Muchnic, Review, Los Angeles Times, March 18. | |
1982 | Barry Brennan, “Santa Monica Gets Pinned,” Evening Outlook, July 27, p.B2. |
Betty Brown, “Astrid Preston’s Fractured Urbanscapes,” Reader, April 9, p.15. | |
William Wilson, Review, Los Angeles Times, Calendar, April 12, 1982. | |
Cornelia Emerson, “Studio Stop for Fine Arts Seminar,” At Art Center, February. | |
1981 | Melinda Wortz, “New Editions: Astrid Preston,” ARTnews, September, p.159. |
Suzanne Muchnic, Review, Los Angeles Times, Calendar. June 5. | |
1980 | Suzanne Muchnic, “A connective Muni Survey,” Los Angeles Times, Calendar, March 23. |
1977 | William Wilson, Review, Los Angeles Times, December 16. |
William Wilson, Review, Los Angeles Times, July 19. | |
Louise Lewis, “A Point of View-Four L.A. Artists,” Artweek, July, p.16. | |
Phillip Gordon, “The Two Cultures,” Los Angeles Free Press, January 17-21. | |
1976 | Faith Wilding, “Twenty-Four Women Making Art,” Artweek, January 15. |
Gordon J. Hazlitt, Review, ARTnews, March 1976, p.88. | |
1975 | Melinda Wortz, “Women’s Art Experiences,” Artweek, September 6, 1975. |
2023 | Astrid Preston: For The Trees, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2021 | Between Worlds, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA |
2018 | Echoing Light, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA |
2017 | Upside Down World, Essay by Lita Barrie, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. |
2016 | Et in Arcadia Ego, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA |
2015 | Astrid Preston - On Reflections, Essay by Robert L. Pincus, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. |
2014 | Why Life Matters. Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison, Springer, Cham, Switzerland. |
2013 | Painted Landscapes, Contemporary Views. Lauren P. Della Monica, Schiffer Pub. Ltd, Arglen, PA. Outside: Selections from the Doug Simay Collection, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA. |
2012 | Breaking in Two: A Provocative Vision of Motherhood, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. |
2010 | L.A. Rising, SoCal Artists Before 1980. Lyn Kienholz, California/International Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA. |
2008 | Astrid Preston – New Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Plein Air Past and Present, San Diego Museum of Art and Lux Art Institute, San Diego and Encinitas, CA. |
2007 | Then + Now: Women Artists of Southern California, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Echoes: Women Inspired by Nature, OCCCA, Santa Ana, CA. |
2006 | Astrid Preston – Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. |
2004 | BordoErdo/Re(a)d Forest/Roter Wald. Johanna Domokos, Apokrif, Hungary. |
2002 | Astrid Preston: Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. |
2001 | Dreamscapes: Contemporary Surrealist Landscapes, Wignall Museum/Gallery, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, CA. |
2000 | Landscape Not Forgotten, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA. |
1997 | Arte actual en Los Angeles, Sala de Exposiciones de la Excma, Cuenca, Spain. |
1996 | Landscape: The Continuum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, CA. |
1994 | Southern California: The Conceptual Landscape, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI. |
1993 | Paintings of California. Arnold Skolnick, Clarkson Potter/Publishers, New York, NY. |
1987 | Near Paradise, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA. |
1986 | Landscape/Seascape/Cityscape, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA. |
1985 | Chemical Bank: An Art Collection in Perspective, Chemical Bank, New York, NY. |
1984 | Los Angeles and the Palm Tree - Image of a City, ARCO Center for Visual Art, Los Angeles, CA. American Landscape Painting, California State University, Los Angeles, CA. A Broad Spectrum - Contemporary Los Angeles Painters & Sculptors ‘84, Design Center of Los Angeles, CA. |
1983 | United Bank of Denver 1983 Art Collection, Denver, CO. Attention: California Artists, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA. |
1982 | Drawings by Painters, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA. |
1981 | Locations, California State College, San Bernardino, CA. Elegant Night, Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA. |
1980 | Drawing: Personal Definitions, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA. Contemporaries: 17 Artists, Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA. |
1979 | Newspace in San Diego, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA. |
1978 | Exhibitions ‘76 ‘77, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA. |
1977 | Drawing: Various Approaches, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA. Twenty-Four Southern California Women Artists, Cerritos College Art Gallery, Norwalk, CA. |
1975 | American Artists ‘76: A Celebration, Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX |
2005 | Re(a)d Forest, with Johanna Domokos, Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA. |
2019 | Artist Spot Light Series: A Conversation with Astrid Preston, Focus on the Masters Archive & Library (YouTube), Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, CA. [ Watch ] |
2019 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. |
Focus on the Masters Archive & Library, Ventura, CA. |
Banner Project for the Third Street Promenade: The FLORA and FAUNA of Santa Monica. 16 images, enlarged from 24 x 24 inch paintings to 9 foot square banners for DTSM, 2016. |
Roll Global, Los Angeles, CA, three oil on canvas paintings for conference room, 42 x 24 inches each: Pistachios, Oranges and Pomegranates, 2002. |
Lux Art Institute, Encinitas, CA, “Apple Valise” (portable suitcase art) and “Garden of Apple Delights” (site installation of 15 Anna apple trees,) 2002 & 2003. |
Princess Cruises, Sun Princess, 5 oil on canvas paintings, 1995. |
The Principal Financial Group, 80 Grand, Des Moines, Iowa, lobby mural, 6 oil on canvas paintings on a 70 ft. wall, 1992. |
JMB Development, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, lobby, design for 3 tapestries, 117 x 47 ½ inches each, 1990-91. |
Home Savings of America, Woodland Hills, CA, 6 ft. x 26 ft., ceramic tile mural, 1989. |
Home Savings of America, Monterey Park, CA, ceramic tile & glass mosaic mural, 16 ft. x 16 ft., ’89. |
Home Savings of America, Irwindale, CA, 2 enamel on wood paintings for cafeteria, 26 panels on a 60 ft. wall and 20 panels on a 40 ft. wall, 1988. |
Golf Corp. of America, Santa Monica, CA, 6 oil on canvas painting Irvine Hilton, Costa Mesa, CA, three enamel on aluminum paintings for coffee shop, 24” x 109”, 25 ½” x 185” and 18”x 41”, 1985. |
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA |
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX |
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA |
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV |
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN |
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA |
Long Beach Museum, Long Beach, CA |
Grunwald Graphic Arts Center, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA |
Lux Art Institute, Encinitas, CA |
Frederick R.Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA |
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR |
Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA |
Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA |
Kaufman and Broad, Paris, France |
Hotel Hankyu International, Osaka, Japan |
HBO, Los Angeles, CA |
Grand Hyatt, Maui, HI |
Golf Corporation of America, Santa Monica, CA |
City of Santa Monica, CA |
IBM, Los Angeles, CA |
Gonda Neuroscience & Genetics Research Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA |
Forest Inn Showakan, Tokyo, Japan |
O’Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, CA |
Warner Brothers Records, Burbank, CA |
Prudential Insurance, Westlake, CA |
United Bank of Denver, Denver, CO |
The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY |
Kaufman & Broad, Los Angeles, CA |
The Colburn School, Los Angeles, CA |
NRDC, Santa Monica, CA |