FROM THE ARTIST

Painting has been a consistent and deepening force throughout my life.

Both a meditative ritual that grounds me in the present and, at times, a means of escape. It is a lens through which I experience a full spectrum of emotion. This exhibition brings together paintings from diverse stages

In my work from 2013 to 2026, I began with a black-and-white series, exploring a more physical approach using metal spackle tools and house paint. When I began experiencing vibrations in my brushwork, a new spirituality developed around my practice. The borders seemed to dissolve between seeing, thinking, feeling, and moving.

Through abstraction, something solid is dispersed into parts, liquified, and something simultaneously is lost and formed. Both internally and externally, the process involves moments of struggle, uncertainty, destruction, and euphoric moments of order, clarity, and release. Holding this tension of opposites, and finding balance between controlled and fluid modes of seeing and feeling, presents mysterious puzzles that guide the work forward, meandering toward a third path.

Laina Terpstra is a San Francisco native and a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she studied fine art, modern dance, and religion/philosophy. She lives and works in SF.