News
Attention to Detail
Cove Street Arts, Portland, ME (map)
September 14 - November 11, 2023
Opening reception: Thursday, September 14, 5:00 - 7:00 pm.
71 Cove Street, Portland, MA 04101
Attention to Detail, curated by Lin Lisberger, includes the work of four artists who are pursuing abstract ideas through careful representation of detail. I am pleased to be exhibiting an ensemble of large-scale prints and a laser-cut felt sculpture from my Leaf Series. Artists include: Lydia Ricci, Grace DeGennaro, Lin Lisberger, and Beth Galston.
Leaf Series: moments in time
Singer Editions, Boston, MA (map)
July 20 - October 26, 2023
Opening reception: July 27, 5:30 - 7:30 pm. Gallery talk at 6:00 pm.
Singer Editions, 300 Summer Street, Studio A2/M3, Boston, MA 02210
Leaf Series is a multi-year project that grew out of my daily walks in the woods and my love of collecting. Each inkjet print of a decaying leaf can be thought of as a portrait. The leaves are scanned at high resolution and printed at an enlarged scale. This invites us to look at them closely and see them in new ways. Each leaf is a record of a moment in time. The leaf prints are a kind of memento mori—a reminder of death, transformation, and disappearance. But they are also a celebration of the fragility and beauty of what remains.
Stick People
May 13 - June 24, 2023
Opening reception: May 20, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Storefront Art Projects, 83 Spring Street, Watertown, MA
Stick People gathers together nine artists whose work makes use of trees in all their forms. For this project, I created a wall installation made entirely of toothpicks, from my “Fragilities” series. Artists include Christopher Abrams, Meg Alexander, Rebecca Doughty, Alan Doyle, Beth Galston, Jesse Hickman, Damien Hoar de Galvan, Matt Neckers, Pat Shannon. Organized by Rebecca Doughty.
Ice Forest
Woodland Gallery, Chesterwood (map)
July 8 - October 25, 2022
Opening reception and gallery talk: August 12, 2022, 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Chesterwood, 4 Williamsville Road, Stockbridge, MA 01262
https://www.chesterwood.org/beth-galston
In Ice Forest, hundreds of translucent cast resin rose stems are suspended to create an icy forest. The crystalline stems, whose thorns are sharp like real roses, suggest a fairy tale world that is enticing yet dangerous. Although made of industrial materials, this forest evokes a natural place. The installation evolved through a process of improvisation during my weeklong residency at Chesterwood.
Unraveling Oculus
Sculptural installation with video projection
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (map)
June 18 - October 10, 2022
Opening reception: June 18, 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, 10 Vernon Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301
https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/2022/03/01/beth-galston-unraveling-oculus/
The Unraveling Oculus installation is based on a video filmed in a silo during the pandemic. I’ve created an immersive environment by layering the video, mirrors, and tens of thousands of acorn caps strung onto strands and spilling across the gallery. My goal for this piece, and all of my sculptures, is to engage viewers as participants in an imaginative journey.
Unraveling Oculus
5 min video, by Beth Galston with Ellen Sebring
B3 Biennial of the Moving Image
October 15, 2021
Frankfurt, Germany
Natural materials collected on my long daily walks in the woods during the COVID pandemic are the basis of a series of actions within the Bell Silo. The deep resonance of Paul Matisse’s bell is set against the staccato jostling of acorn caps, later strung into fairytale-like strands. The video weaves my interactions with sculptural materials to slowly reveal and transform the silo’s “oculus.”
Materials used in the video: Acorn caps, mirrored plexiglas, catalpa leaves
Poetic Botany: Artists and Plants
Suffolk University Art Gallery (map)
March 1 - April 23, 2021
Suffolk University Art Gallery, 8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108
Seven of my Leaf Prints were on view in Poetic Botany. Leaf Prints, 2017-2021, are part of an ongoing series of inkjet prints of decayed leaves. They are scanned at a high resolution and printed at an enlarged scale, creating a visceral experience that draws the viewer into the image. I am fascinated with the process of decay and how it reveals the fragile inner structure of each leaf. Looking closely, we can see them in new ways.
Built and Imagined
Gleason Public Library (map)
March 14 - December 5, 2020
Gleason Public Library, 22 Bedford Road, Carlisle, MA 01741
Built and Imagined explores how I envision and give form to my ideas through the process of making models. It brings together for the first time a mini-retrospective of my models for public projects—from Tree/House in 1994 to Floating Garden in 2019— complemented by a slide show of the finished projects and process materials. Also on view are recent prints: from the Drilled series (made by repeatedly drilling into copper plates and inking them) and the Leaf series (made from high resolution scans of decayed leaves, revealing their fragile inner structure). The ensemble of sculptures and prints take inspiration from nature and invite viewers to enter in, either physically or through their imagination.
Floating Garden
The Pioneer (map)
Permanent, installed February 2019
The Pioneer, 1760 Revere Beach Pkwy Everett, MA 02149
I was hired to create Floating Garden, a permanent large-scale light installation for the 32’ tall entry atrium of a new apartment building in Everett, MA. The sculpture was designed specifically for the building and the multiple vantage points viewers have as they move through the space. This “garden” is made of large cast resin forms based on acorn caps, amber-colored LEDs, copper tubing, electrical wires, sockets, and cables. After a year of prototyping and fabricating, the piece was installed in 2019. It is the first permanent installation in the Luminous Garden series, which I have been working on for seventeen years.
Leaf Project
Cynthia-Reeves (map)
Note: exhibition cancelled due to pandemic
Cynthia-Reeves, 1315 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247
The Leaf Project features a series of large-scale inkjet prints made from high resolution scans of decayed leaves, which I have been collecting for years. I’m fascinated with their delicate beauty and the filigree vein structure revealed through the process of decay. Printed at a larger than person-sized scale, the installation of leaf prints creates an immersive experience for the viewer.