Biography
David Touster imagines that at the time the original photos for these works were taken, somebody probably said to somebody, "Nobody else is going to see these, right?" So who is to blame, the one for showing skin or the other for asking them to?

Touster looks at how intimate behavior can often be infused with an element of blame. He tries to highlight that there are different sides to every story, all of them subjective and incomplete, and that it is the judgment, not the act, which should be condemned.

Working from both original and vintage vernacular photographs, he reduces the images' visual information to it's barest through computer pixilation and manipulation. He then prints these new images on canvas and paints them with acrylics, using a variety techniques. By leaving it to us to fill in details, we become aware of ourselves looking at the work, and it's when we participate, putting ourselves in another's shoes, that perhaps we can grow more compassionate.

David Touster's work has been in a number of group exhibitions. He had his first solo exhibit last year at the JanssenArtSpace in Palm Springs, CA. His work, including many portraits, is in collections throughout North and South America, and he is currently adapting an earlier-commissioned portrait of Eva Peron into tile to line the bottom of a 25-foot swimming pool of a new hotel in Buenos Aires, scheduled to open in 2009.

David Touster was raised in New York City, the son of an artist father and an art-collecting mother, where he received his degree in Graphics and Advertising from Parsons School of Design in NY. He then worked as a graphic designer at a number of studios (Pushpin; Intercontinental Hotels) and magazines (GQ; Vogue; Interiors) before moving to California to design for film and television.

Resume

AMY BIRD

Solo Exhibitions

2007 Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho
2007 "Californian Idyll" Milo Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2002 "New Paintings" Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island
2000 "New Paintings" The Northhaven Gallery, Northhaven, Maine
1998 "On the Rocks" The Northhaven Gallery, Northhaven, Maine
1998 The Haven Gallery, Vinalhaven, Maine
1997 The Northhaven Gallery, Northhaven, Maine

Group Shows

2007 "Glass Love" Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California
2003 RISD Alumni show Orbetello Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2002 The RISD museum, Providence, Rhode Island
2002 "Island Fair" The Fog Gallery, Vinalhaven, Maine
2000 Slozberg Gallery, Brandeis University
1996 The Fog Gallery, Vinalhaven, Maine
1995 Jaffe - Freide Gallery, Hanover, New Hampshire
1995 The Bridge Street Gallery, Waitsfield, Vermont

Publications

2008 New American Paintings

Education

2002 MFA, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2000 Certificate of the Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
1995 BA, Studio Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire