Beth Galston’s large-scale immersive environments combine nature, technology and light. Using a range of media — resin, wires, natural materials, lights, electronics — she builds multilayered spaces through which viewers move and interact. Whether outdoors, in a gallery or theater, her sculptures create a sense of place, a moment of magic and transformation. While at MacDowell, she began the transition from her earlier architectural sculptures to works inspired by the forms and processes of nature.
Galston was born in Los Angeles and lives in Carlisle, MA. She received a master's degree in environmental art from MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, where she was also a Fellow for five years and began to work with light. Awards include a Massachusetts Artists Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation, a two-year fellowship from the Bunting Institute, Radcliffe, an NEA InterArts award, and residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Sculpture Space, Inc.
Galston recently installed “Floating Garden,” 2019, a luminous suspended sculptural environment, in the multilevel atrium of a new building in Everett, MA. It is the first permanent piece in her ongoing “Luminous Garden” series, which she began 16 years ago. She is currently working on “Cosmos,” a public artwork for the MBTA in Boston, with her collaborator, Bartek Konieczny. Other recent public artworks include “Sound Wave,” a computer-controlled light sculpture for Music City Center in Nashville, TN and “Prairie Grass,” in San Antonio, TX, a sculpture inspired by wild grasses. Recent exhibitions include Newport Art Museum, RI; Portsmouth Arts and Cultural Center, VA; Cynthia-Reeves Gallery, North Adams, MA; and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.
