Meet Joshua Aster

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joshua Aster and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joshua, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
My grandfather was an artist and teacher in Brooklyn. Seeing his paintings on the wall of our family home and recognizing the place (studio) of discovery and construction fascinated me. I imagined a room where I could have my own creative autonomy.

I worked for a gallery in Boston in the late 90s that also had a framing company. The gallery provided canvasses for their artists. This kind of support can be an essential in an artists’ practice, considering the costs of artistic endeavors.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2004 to pursue my MFA at UCLA in painting. Since then I’ve become an exhibiting artist. My partner, fellow painter Kristin Calabrese, and I started a stretcher bar business which has blossomed by word of mouth. Painters’ modes of working are various and problem solving is one of the exciting aspects of our customer interactions.

Pre-pandemic, Kristin and I curated a huge raucous show of 250 artists in three dollhouse towers which we constructed. We provided all the miniature canvasses to each artists specifications. The supports we made were an integral part of the exhibit which opened the door to creating a space for art.

Serious Topics gives us the opportunity for conversation with artists we admire through projects we can help them realize. There is a natural flow between the wood shop, the gallery and my art studio that feels like I’m swimming through creative positivity and community.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The studio breathes with seasonal change. I just had an exhibition of paintings entitled “FLY! BE FREE!” at the wonderful Gattopardo Gallery. Created as a meditation on the elements of our fragile existence, the paintings weave together elements of love and fear, hope and joy. The underpainting is a loose and gestural stream of consciousness drawing with paint, the subject matter of which can include such disparate elements as empty rooms, patterns, vintage typography, memories of place and brushwork informed by the movement of flickering newsreels. Over that foundation I construct a matrix of triangles that can be upright and static or drifting and bowed. Each individual triangle hosts colors inflected by what lies beneath.

The studio insulates me from the unpredictability of the world. Painting is my teddy bear if my teddy bear was a Deity that loves me. My paintings filter life experiences by pushing against the two-dimensional limitations of the canvas. As interests change, the paintings shift and bend to the temperament of my being.

A life in art has given me the chance to be the whole person I strive to be. Work, life and creative ventures fuel each other. Sometimes the indirect path can take us where we’re meant to be. With art we are always circling back in to find undiscovered places in the psyche that challenge perceptions. Art is a gift that is free for everyone to experience. Making it, seeing it, seeing the work of other peoples’ work and being able to share it is meaningful and nurturing. Art is an oasis, a pool to return to again and again.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I like live music and the Belasco is a beautiful venue to see a show where I recently caught the Chameleons.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This is dedicated to the wonderful and supportive LA art community.

Website: www.joshuaaster.com. www.serious-topics.com. www.stretcheroptions.com

Instagram: @shinsky1

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@serious-topics

Other: www.serious-topics.com www.stretcheroptions.com 

Image Credits
Portrait at Future Fair photo credit Michael Slenske Install at Gattopardo photo credit Chris Haenke