Laina Terpstra

Overview
Laina Terpstra
Laina Terpstra is an abstract, figurative painter based in San Francisco. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where her focus was Painting, Modern Dance, Philosophy and Theology. Laina's background in modern dance informs her work, in her sensitivity to movement and gesture. The tactility of the paint and her acute awareness of touch evoke a kinesthetic empathy on the part of the viewer that draws one into the internal motion of both the evoked space, and the physical, tactile present. Her compositions, largely influenced by 17th century Dutch painting, veer toward abstraction, yet also retain an internal scaffolding of realistic space and light. Forms are deconstructed and distilled to their purest elements so that what is left is merely the code of an image that your mind is compelled to complete. Her work explores this liminal place where spaces are sensed rather than recognized, and defined through a logic of sensation, movement, and vibration.
Works
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled
    Untitled
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #6
    Untitled #6
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #9
    Untitled #9
  • Laina Terpstra, From Pieter de Hooch, ‘Figures in a Stable’ (small)
    From Pieter de Hooch, ‘Figures in a Stable’ (small)
  • Laina Terpstra, From Jan Steen’s ‘The Card Players in an Interior’
    From Jan Steen’s ‘The Card Players in an Interior’
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #2
    Untitled #2
  • Laina Terpstra, From Pieter de Hooch, ‘Interior with a Young Couple’
    From Pieter de Hooch, ‘Interior with a Young Couple’
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #5
    Untitled #5
  • Laina Terpstra, Solutio
    Solutio
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #1
    Untitled #1
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #3
    Untitled #3
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #7
    Untitled #7
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #8
    Untitled #8
  • Laina Terpstra, Untitled #4
    Untitled #4
  • Laina Terpstra, From Edmund Tarbell, ‘New England Interior’
    From Edmund Tarbell, ‘New England Interior’
  • Laina Terpstra, From Pieter de Hooch ‘Woman Drinking with Soldiers'
    From Pieter de Hooch ‘Woman Drinking with Soldiers'
CV
Laina Terpstra

EDUCATION

BA Sarah Lawrence College. Emphasis in Fine Art, Dance, Religion and Philosopy

Additional coursework at UC Berkeley, SF Art Institute, and the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland

 

EXHIBITIONS

2026

Solutio. Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2025

Gamble + Design, San Francisco, CA
Laina Terpstra: Upper Market Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Art Auction to Benefit the Artist, Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023

Laina Terpstra, Sacred Spaces, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Art Auction to Benefit the Artist, Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Dissonance Within the Fog, The Alchemy House, San Francisco, CA
2020

Laina Terpstra and Paul Bloch, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2019

Laina Terpstra: New Paintings, Gamble + Design, San Francisco, CA

Art Auction to Benefit the Artist, Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Laina Terpstra and Rachel Dwan, San Francisco, CA

2018

The East Cut Art Fair, George Lawson Gallery Booth, San Francisco, CA
2017

Laina Terpstra: Departures, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2015

 Art Olympia Finalist Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
 Younger Than George, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014

Laina Terpstra and Rebecca Manson, 99cent Plus Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

99cent Plus Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Chromoscope, Holographic Center for the Arts, Queens, NY

2013

Distraction, Gallery 60SIX, San Francisco, CA
2012

Grace + Clark Fyfe Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Anexact Geometries. AMO Studios, Brooklyn, NY
2011

Tic Tac Toe. AMO Studios, Brooklyn, NY
2010

Barbara Walters Gallery, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY

 

PRESS

2020

Juxtapoz Magazine, “Interior Space in Motion: A Review of Laina Terpstra’s Work at Maybaum Gallery” by Matt Gonzalez.
2019

Young Painters, “List of Young Painters: 101 artists of unusual promise, b. 1987 or younger.”
2017

Art Practical, “Laina Terpstra and Tama Hochbaum” by DeWitt Cheng.
2013

7x7 SF, “Four Exceptional Gallery Exhibitions to Visit.”
2013

Arts in Bushwick, “BOS Studio Visit: Laina Terpstra.”

 

AWARDS

2015

Finalist in the Art Olympia International Art Competition. ‘Jan Steen Interior’ was exhibited at the final exhibition in Tokyo, Japan.