Ruth Pastine American, b. 1964
Ruth Pastine creates neo-minimalist paintings that explore the phenomenology of light and space, interrogating perceptual experience through interactions of color. In her practice, Pastine employs a series of color gradients, bracketed by shifts in their peripheries. The edges of these panels—although seemingly marked by their finitude—extend the viewer towards existential inquiry, transcending beyond the canvas. Fascinated with the concept of contradiction, Pastine fabricates complementary color systems with a tension between the present and the absent. Her small, seamless brush strokes contribute to the immediacy of her paintings, dematerializing the work while portraying it as an objective, reflexive image. And yet, the interplay of light emphasizes the manipulation of the canvas, undermining the accuracy of spectatorship. Pastine’s large-scale works culminate as a redefinition of the visual field, compartmentalizing perception through properties of color, light, and matter.
Ruth Pastine (b. 1964, New York City, NY) began her academic career by receiving her BFA at Cooper Union, where she was then awarded a post-graduate independent residency grant to the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. After enrolling at Hunter College of the City University of New York, she studied painting, color theory, and critical studies, obtaining her MFA in 1993. Pastine has exhibited throughout the United States, most recently serving as the subject of a solo exhibition, Light as Air, at Gallery Sonja Roesch in Houston, TX. She has additionally been showcased at Brian Gross Fine Art in San Francisco, CA, Haines Gallery in San Francisco, CA, Deven Golden Fine Art in New York, NY, and Quint Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, CA, among others.
Her works are in permanent collections of numerous private and public institutions, including the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; MOAH Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; Brookfield Properties, Los Angeles, CA; AXA Art, Cologne, Germany; Qualcomm, San Diego, CA; CIM Group Headquarters, Los Angeles, CA; PIMCO Global Headquarters, Newport Beach, CA; Proskauer, Washington, D.C.; and United Airlines, Los Angeles, CA. Pastine is the recipient of several awards and grants from the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (1999), Shifting Foundation (2000), and the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation (2018). Ruth Pastine currently lives and works in Southern California.
