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Scott Richards Contemporary Art is pleased to present Colorscape, a solo exhibition of new paintings by California-based artist Ruth Pastine. The exhibit is on view from April 11 through May 30, 2026, opening with a reception for the artist on Saturday, April 11, from 4 -6 pm. Widely recognized for her luminous and meditative minimalist paintings, Pastine creates atmospheric fields of color that unfold through subtle tonal transitions and layered pigment. The exhibition coincides with an upcoming solo presentation at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in Malibu, California in May 2026, marking an important moment of institutional recognition for the artist.
Colorscape brings together a new group of atmospheric compositions of varied sizes that seem to float before our eyes, elegantly stretched upon beveled supports. Built through countless layers of oil paint, these ethereal works hover between presence and immateriality, inviting quiet introspection.
“My work explores the phenomenological experience of color, light, and space in individual paintings and multi-panel installations,” Pastine has said. “The painting process affords the opportunity to be present in the extended moment, and the paintings come from this spaciousness that perceptually unfolds over time.”
Rooted in the visual language of West Coast Light and Space and Color Field painting, Ruth Pastine’s work transforms color into an immersive, emotional field in which chromatic hues become both subject and atmosphere. In this way, her paintings invite the kind of contemplative encounter associated with the work of Mark Rothko, where color functions as a psychological and spatial experience rather than a descriptive element. This effect is reinforced through the soft-edged bands of color and luminous atmosphere that characterize her work.
Although rendered entirely through meticulous brushwork, Pastine’s paintings share a perceptual affinity with the light environments of James Turrell and the luminous installations of Dan Flavin, where color and light function as immersive spatial phenomena that alter perception itself. In each of her works, the gradual tonal transitions between hues are nearly imperceptible, producing a radiant chromatic environment in which color seems to hover and shift with the viewer’s movement and the surrounding light. Indigo blues dissolve into deep violet, magenta reds pulse with bold intensity, and turquoise greens radiate across the surface, each composition unfolding its own chromatic atmosphere and sensual optical experience.
Ruth Pastine has exhibited widely, and her paintings are held in numerous private, corporate, and world-renowned public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles; and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA, among others.
A dedicated artist monograph, Ruth Pastine: Limitless, is forthcoming.
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 11, 2026
Exhibition Dates: April 11 – May 30, 2026
Location: Scott Richards Contemporary Art. 501 Pacific Avenue San Francisco, CA
Press Contact: Alina Richards, Scott Richards Contemporary Art | alina@srcart.com 415-205-4197
Artist:
Born and raised in New York City, Ruth Pastine is best known for her Neo-minimalist color field paintings that advance the seminal Light and Space movement emerging from Southern California in the 1960s. She received a four-year scholarship to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where she earned her B.F.A. Upon graduating, she was awarded a post-graduate independent residency grant to the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She later received her M.F.A. from Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she continued her focus on painting, color theory, and critical studies.
In 2014, she was invited to exhibit selected paintings in Attraction 1993–2013 at MOAH Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA. In 2015, she presented Present Tense, an exhibition of selected paintings and works on paper from 2010–2015 at the CAM Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA. In 2026, she will exhibit new paintings curated by Andrea Gyorody, Director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, accompanied by a monograph of her work.
Ruth Pastine’s paintings are included in numerous private and public collections including the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA. Selected corporate collections include: AXA Art, Cologne, Germany, Brookfield Properties, Ernst & Young Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, CIM Group Headquarters, Los Angeles, CA, PIMCO Global Headquarters, Newport Beach, CA, Proskauer, Washington, D.C., Qualcomm, San Diego, CA, Tarsadia Investments Headquarters, Newport Beach, CA, United Airlines LAX, Los Angeles, CA, UNICEF, New York, NY among others. Ruth Pastine lives and works in Los Angeles and Ojai, CA.
501 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
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