Press
48 Hills Magazine (November 9, 2023)
Artist Profile in 48 Hills Magazine
Sandy Ostrau wants viewers to ‘feel their place’ in her luminous figurative work.
Insights on light, color, and composition tapped by the artists of the 1950s and ’60s Bay Area Figurative Movement are evident in artist Sandy Ostrau’s figurative and landscape works. She is the first person to affirm that observation. It’s nearly an homage.
Ostrau says that many of her peers in the vibrant and varied Bay Area arts scene have followed in the footsteps of artists Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, and Elmer Bischoff — and that one senses a passion for art-making here that continues to grow... — Mary Corbin
Santa Barbara independent Paper (April 30, 2022)
Sandy Ostrau: ‘Paradise Revisited’ in Santa Barbara
A Pendulum Swings in Paradise at Thomas Reynolds Gallery.
Thomas Reynolds Gallery’s latest exhibition holds — and resolves — subtle tensions gracefully. Sandy Ostrau’s Paradise Revisited collects 15 of her abstract paintings inspired by the California landscape. These works tell stories yet resist narrative. They capture wholes without losing the contrast of their parts, and form abstractions that sublimate the figurative.
The oscillation between the lack and abundance of story is felt as the two opposing walls of the gallery seize the viewer’s senses. The show renders vacillation personal. The artist is not a visitor to paradise so much as a pendulum swinging in and out of it. We see separateness morphing into togetherness and back. In a bittersweet retelling of our ecological relationships, Ostrau’s figures first fuse with the landscape and then reclaim their singularity. Compelling examples include “Dunes Pass,” where the figure self-erases into the dunes, and “Wild Flowered Path,” where the figuration borders on camouflage.... — Halim Madi
PUNCH Magazine (January 1, 2022)
Eye for the Abstract
PUNCH Magazine is a new regional magazine covering the Silicon Valley Peninsula. The January 2022 issue features selected paintings by Sandy Ostrau. View article (Eye for the Abstract) on pages 98-104. — Article by Sheryl Nonnenberg
Santa Barbara Voice Magazine (December 4, 2020)
“The Art of California” at new State Street gallery
AFTER A QUARTER-CENTURY IN SAN FRANCISCO, the Thomas Reynolds Gallery will present its 26th annual holiday exhibition in December at 1331 State Street, near the historic Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara’s arts district.
The gallery’s inaugural exhibition brings Sandy Ostrau back to Santa Barbara. Sandy is a proud graduate of UCSB, where she starred on the women’s soccer team. Her juicy paintings of life on the California coast — painted on location and in her studios in Palo Alto and at the Sea Ranch — are considered among the most exciting works of our time… — William W. Whitney
Charleston City Paper (March 1, 2017)
Meyer Vogl Gallery hosts inaugural abstract show
"We have to be selective with guest artists," says Vogl, "and we knew we wanted Sandy." Ostrau's paintings were exactly what they envisioned for the gallery's first abstract show. "She's used to taking a very physical thing, like people in the landscape, and trying to reduce that and scale that down to something for the viewer," notes Vogl. — Mary Scott Hardaway
SFAQ featured online (August 15, 2017)
Review by Paul J. Karlstrom
“She is a painter who has chosen to address a fundamental modernist question. But she has done so with an awareness of the practical value of the history to which she is an heir and a dedication to her practice that allows for her own voice to emerge within that framework. Despite her focus on the act of painting and examples provided by that history, she is not an imitator. Ostrau’s marks are her own — as is her contemporary painterly vision."
Huffington Post (July 17, 2013)
Interview by Art Critic John Seed
"An intuitive artist who loves paint as a substance -- and who has a tendency to obliterate her imagery with painterly gestures -- Ostrau doesn't go all the way to abstraction. To do so would remove the emotional connection she wants viewers to have with her source material. "I'm not a fully abstract painter," she explains: "I want people to feel the landscape."
Exhibitions
2024
Art Auction/Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
2023
2022
2021
Crosscurrents, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Art in the Redwoods, Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA
Small Works, LyndonDesign Gallery, Sea Ranch, CA
Art Auction / Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Group Landscape Show, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Group Figurative Show, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Figure It Out, Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA
2020
The Art of California, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
New Spaces in Familiar Places, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Standing Alone Together, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Warm Waters, Anne Neilson Fine Art, Charlotte, NC
Virtual Online Exhibition, Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC
DMQ Review, Spring Issue Featured Artist
31 Women, Whitney Modern, Los Gatos, CA
48 Pillars, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2019
Connect & Collect, San Jose ICA, San Jose, CA
Terrain: A Landscape Collective, Anne Neilson Fine Art, Charlotte, NC
Sun at My Back, LeeAnn Brook Fine Art, Nevada City, CA
The Figure, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Art Auction / Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Sea Ranch Inspirations, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, San Francisco, CA
48 Pillars, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Three Views, Anne Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, IL
2018
New Works, Anne Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, IL
Small Treasures, Online Gallery, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Small Works, LyndonDesign Gallery, Sea Ranch, CA
Shared Vision, Solo Exhibition, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Art Auction/Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Group Exhibition, LyndonDesign Gallery, Sea Ranch, CA
Bold Vision, Group Exhibition, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Plunge, Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC
Inside Out, Solo exhibition, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Fall Exhibition, Peterson Roth Gallery, Bend, OR
Art for Aids Auction, City View at Metreon, San Francisco, CA
A Room With a View, The Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA
New Works, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, San Francisco, CA
New Works, Gallery North, Carmel, CA
Solstice Scenes, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Art Auction / Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Studio Tour and Presentation, members’ private studio tour series, Cantor Museum at Stanford University
Featured Artist, Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC
New Works, Anne Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, IL
Spring Show: New Paintings and Old Favorites, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Of Vivid Dreams, Anne Neilson Fine Art, Charlotte, NC
2017
Coastal Inhabitants, Solo Exhibition, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Art Auction / Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Sandy Ostrau Paints, Small Works Exhibit, LyndonDesign Gallery, Sea Ranch, CA
Go Figure, Group Figurative Exhibit, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Group Figurative Show, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Small Works, Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC
New Works, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Introducing "Yolo" and "Blue Shadows," Peterson Roth Gallery, Bend, OR
About Place, Solo exhibition, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
Go Figure, Spindrift Gallery, Gualala, CA
Coming and Going, Solo exhibition, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Celebrating Women Painters, Spindrift Gallery, Gualala, CA
Dreaming in Color, Mythos Fine Art, Berkeley, CA
Figuratively Speaking, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Honoring the Legacy of David Park, University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA
RAW, Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC
Education and Training
California Academy of Painters
Palo Alto, CA (Brigitte Curt and Jim Smyth)
Pacific Art League
Palo Alto, CA
Palo Alto Art Center
Palo Alto, CA
University of California Santa Barbara
B.A. Liberal Studies with concentration in Art History
Awards
Honorable Mention Award
Statewide Painting Competition and Exhibition (2012), Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
First Place Award (painting division)
Art in the Redwoods (2011), Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA
Winner (Catalogue Cover Competition)
North Coast Discovery Tour (2008), Gualala, CA
Judges Award
Art in the Redwoods (2008), Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA
Best in Show Award
Wet Paint (2006), Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA
First Prize (oil and acrylic painting)
Art In The Redwoods (2004), Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA