BLAIR
who is PRESTON BLAIR?
I am obsessed with the visceral. The raw. The inherently controversial. The pushing of boundaries. The in-your-face.
This venture into the subliminal contrivance of my mind through dream imagery and reconciliation is what drives my work. I strive to gain a superior understanding of where I come from and how that’s impacted my direction of life. These origins involve unresolved trauma, confusion, suspicion, and vexation. I aim to uncover the mechanisms by which my consciousness functions. This process is simultaneously medicine and poison to my psyche, or what the ancient Greeks believed to be a pharmakon.
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Deeply in tune with my mental and physical health, I look to uncover the connection between mind and body. This extensive insight comes from years of dedicated awareness to my own experiences and life story. I am inspired by artists from the likes of Andres Serrano, William Kentridge, and Andy Warhol while my ideologies draw from surrealism.
Raw, unaltered, and intrinsic emotions are used in my work to dissect the discourse between my subconscious and conscious brain. This manifests in my most recent work through the use of charcoal in large-scale drawings. Creating rough and unfiltered images exposes the inner workings of my mind. By colorizing these monochrome visuals into repeated and vibrantly replicated silkscreen prints, my mind experiences a cathartic release. I challenge the simplicity of life and question the deeper issues we deal with as bodies inhabiting space/time continuum. My desire to expose the inner workings of the human psyche and the network of synapses within the brain inspire my practice and guide my process.
Biography
PRESTON BLAIR was born and raised in the vibrant, graffitied streets of sunny Los Angeles, California in 2000. He attended Flintridge Preparatory School where he studied collegiate level conceptual photography under the visual arts department chair, Tim Bradley and Associate Professor Ricardo Rodriguez. With access to darkroom and digital studio space, he was given the tools to critically explore themes of consumerism and human tendencies alongside fellow students in round table discussions and critiques. These concepts sparked his view of the world as an artist and led to awards received for outstanding work within the art department.
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He later studied at Carnegie Mellon University in cold and rainy Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the School of Fine Art under a variety of mentors including Professor Bob Bingham and Director of the Miller ICA, Elizabeth Chodos. PRESTON closely worked alongside photographer George Lange during an internship where he photographed Jeff Goldblum for National Geographic. PRESTON was invited with 11 other students to take part in a pilot program offered by the University to visit art industry professionals in New York and view first hand what it means to be an emerging artist in the city.
Isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic informed his practice during his sophomore year when he had to leave his close friends and return home for the unforeseeable future. These formative years drastically impacted his understanding of the world as an artist with isolation and adaptation becoming inherent to his practice.
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PRESTON had his first public exhibition in 2022 at the Miller ICA in Pittsburgh displaying a wall of 40/200 original silkscreens alongside his classmates as the culmination of his undergraduate experience. Consecutive studio critiques multiple times a month during his time at Carnegie Mellon formed his understanding of what it means to put on an exhibition. He received a BFA in visual arts and a minor in innovation and entrepreneurship from Carnegie Mellon in 2022. PRESTON now lives and works in New York City and is a keyholder of the Lower East Side Print Shop and a member of the Manhattan Graphics Center. He participates in art fairs and continues to seek gallery representation around the city.
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PRESTON is the CEO and founding artist of tetheredART.com and Tethered Services.