Astrid Preston


Astrid Preston is a Latvian-American artist, specializing in painting and drawing. She received a B.A. in English Literature from University of California, Los Angeles in 1967. She has had solo exhibitions at the Laguna Art Museum, Saginaw Art Museum, Wichita Falls Museum, Ella Sharp Museum and Arts College International. Articles and reviews of her works have appeared in Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Art in America and Artforum. Her works are in the permanent collection of Laguna Art Museum, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, McNay Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California and Nevada Museum of Art. Her archives are at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
She has been featured on the Bakersfield Museum of Art podcast "" with Artists; Don Bachardy, Gregory Wiley Edwards and Allen Ruppersberg. Preston received an NEA Fellowship Grant in Painting in 1987 and an artist residency from Lux Art Institute in 2008.

Exhibitions

Bakersfield Museum of Art

  • ''Poetics of Nature''

Others

  • Astrid Preston solo exhibition,
  • Summer in Bloom: A floral interpretation
  • Paintings & Drawings
  • New Paintings
  • Dreamscapes
  • Being in Place
  • Landscapes of the Mind
  • Astrid Preston: small paintings
  • Landscapes of the Mind
  • Astrid Preston, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA

2000

  • Landscapes: A State of Mind, MSC Forsyth Center Galleries, Texas A & M University, College Station
  • Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
  • Paintings, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach

1999

  • Paintings, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
  • Recent Landscapes, St. Matthews Parish School, Pacific Palisades
  • In Perspective, Arts College International, San Diego

1998

  • Paintings, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach
  • Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson, MI
  • Landscapes, Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw

1997

  • Paintings, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach

1994

  • Astrid Preston, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach

1991

  • New Paintings, Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles

1989

  • New Paintings, Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles

1987

  • Near Paradise, Laguna Art Museum
  • New Paintings and Drawings, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego
  • Recent Paintings and Drawings, Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

1986

  • Night Paintings, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego

1985

  • New Paintings and Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles
  • New Paintings and Drawings, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego

1984

  • New Paintings and Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA

1983

  • New Paintings and Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles

1982

1981

Landscapes, Newspace, Los Angeles

1979

  • Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles

1977

  • Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles

1976

  • Drawings, Newspace, Los Angeles

1974

  • Recent Paintings and Drawings, Gallery 707, Los Angeles

Selected group exhibitions

2023

  • The Flower Show, L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice
  • Uncharted Terrain: Imagined Landscapes: Hilary Brace, David Edington, Astrid Preston, Vita Art Center, Ventura
  • Surreal Women, Sullivan Goss American Gallery, Santa Barbara
  • Color and Form, Tufenkian Fine Arts, Glendale

2022

  • The Edge LA Art 1970-90s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection, Armenian Museum of America, Watertown
  • Nocturnal Sun, S.C.A.P.E., Corona del Mar
  • Multiple Insights, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla

2021

2020

  • that's what artists do, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla
  • Antidote to Noise: Four Voices, curated by Peter Frank, Castelli Art Space, Los Angeles

2019

  • re•col•lec•tion, Vita Art Center, Ventura
  • Mindshift, LAVA Projects, Alhambra
  • Made in California, Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art, CSUSB, San Bernardino
  • 40 Years of Art at Michael's, The Gallery of Michael's, Santa Monica
  • Untitled The Diane and Browne Goodwin Collection, Illinois State Museum, Lockport
  • Women on the Rise 2019, Vita Art Center, Ventura

2018

  • Lazy Susan V: Human/Nature, LAVA Projects, Alhambra

2017

  • The Nature of Jungles, William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks

2016

  • Et in Arcadia Ego, New Museum Los Gatos; Traveled to William Rolland Gallery, Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks
  • Measure, Gesture, Form: Modern and Contemporary Drawings from a Recent Gift, Portland Art Museum, Portland

2015

  • Above Ground, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla

2014

2013

  • A little snow..., Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
  • Outside: Selections from the Doug Simay Collection, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside
  • Joan Joan Joan! One Subject, Many Artists, John Wayne Airport

2012

  • Contemporary Realism from the Permanent Collection, Weisman Museum, Pepperdine University, Malibu
  • Breaking in Two: A Provocative Vision of Motherhood, Arena 1, Santa Monica

2011

  • 5X5 an Invitational, Westmont Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
  • Speak for the Trees, House of Balsamic, Irvine
  • Speak for the Trees, S.C.A.P.E., Corona del Mar
  • Gallery Selections 2011, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA

2010

2008

  • Emphasis Santa Monica, curated by Bruria Finkel, Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery, S.M.
  • Plein Air Past and Present, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego

2007

  • then + now: Women Artists of Southern California, curated by Bruria Finkel, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica
  • Echoes: Women Inspired by Nature, curated by Betty Ann Brown & Linda Vallejo, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana

2006

  • Distinctive Artists of Southern California, LAX & Ontario Airports
  • 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
  • Santa Monica Originals, curated by Bruria Finkel, Arena 1, Santa Monica

2004

  • New California Realism, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach
  • Shakespeare as Muse, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland

2003

  • Omnivores, Michaels, Santa Monica

2000

  • Landscape Not Forgotten, Wm D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad

1998

  • Enduring Landscape, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville

1997

  • Arte actual en Los Angeles, Sala de Exposiciones de la Excma, Cuenca, Spain
  • Real, Is it?, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles

1996

  • City of Vapor, Tatistcheff/Rogers, Santa Monica
  • 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
  • LA Current: The Full Spectrum, UCLA Hammer Museum of Art, Rental and Sales Gallery, Los Angeles
  • Time Splits Open: 15 Narratives, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
  • LA Current: The Female Perspective, UCLA Hammer Museum of Art, Rental and Sales Gallery, Los Angeles
  • Paintings of the New Landscape, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach

1995

1994

  • Holiday Group Show, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach
  • Southern California: The Conceptual Landscape, Madison Arts Center, Madison
  • A Sense of Place, The Sam Francis Gallery, Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences, Santa Monica
  • Greiger. Preston. Wudl, Jerrold Burchman Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara

1992

1991

  • Personal Mythologies, Marc Richards Gallery, Santa Monica
  • The Edge of Night, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton
  • The Spiritual Landscape, Biota Gallery, Los Angeles

1990

  • Nightscapes, FHP Hippodrome Gallery, Long Beach

1988

  • Landscape/Common Ground: A Continuity of Spirit, Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles
  • Seoul Olympic Memorial, 1988 Int'l Continental Artists Exhibition, Printemps, Korea and Tong Art Museum, Korea
  • The Cultivated Landscape, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside
  • California Landscape Art: Plein Art to Present, Downey Museum of Art

1987

  • Present Perspectives: 1975-1985, Fresno Art Center, Fresno

1986

  • Southern California Monotypes: The Singular Image, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University
  • Landscapes/Elements, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles
  • Landscape/Seascape/Cityscape, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans and New York Academy of Fine Arts

1985

  • The Electric Cat, San Diego Natural History Museum
  • Artists Look at Architecture, Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco
  • A Change of Art, Bank of Los Angeles, Los Angeles

1984

  • Significant Others, Patty Aande Gallery, San Diego
  • Los Angeles and the Palm Tree: Image of a City, ARCO Center for Visual Art, Los Angeles
  • A Broad Spectrum: Contemporary LA Painters & Sculptors '84, Design Center of Los Angeles

1983

  • Houses, University Art Gallery, California State University, Hayward
  • The Los Angeles Postcard Project, Part I, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles
  • Attention California Artists, The Oakland Museum, Oakland

1982

  • Permanent Collection, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach
  • The Magic Show, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and Claremont Colleges, Claremont
  • Drawings by Painters, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Mandeville Art Gallery, UCSD; and the Oakland Museum, Oakland

1981

1980

  • Seven from Los Angeles
  • Invitational Drawings and Watercolor Exhibition
  • Unstretched Surfaces
  • Contemporaries: 17 Artists
  • ''Southern California Drawings''

1979

  • Drawings
  • ''Newspace in San Diego''

1977

  • Shades of Gray: A Drawing Survey
  • Drawing: Various Approaches
  • A Point of View-Recent Work by Four Los Angeles Artists
  • ''24 Southern California Women Artists''

1976, 1975, 1974

  • American Artists '76: A Celebration
  • Drawings
  • Group Show
  • ''Annual Juried Show''

Honors and recognition

YearAwardCategoryRef
1987National Endowment for the ArtsFellowship Grant in Painting
2008Lux Art InstituteArtist residency
1975Los Angeles Municipal Art GalleryPurchase award
1983Mural Competition AwardChildren's Hospital Walls Competition, Los Angeles