ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Rebecca B. Alston’s interdisciplinary practice operates at the intersection of architecture, perceptual theory, and postmodern abstraction. Her experimental mixed media works of art include canvas, paper, reliefs, and environmental installations. Alston lived in New York City for most of her professional career, with one year in London and one year in Chicago. Her winter studio has been located on the MS Gulf Coast, east of New Orleans.
Alston attended postgraduate programs at NYU and Harvard University's GSD Professional Program. She obtained a B.F.A. from Auburn University and an M.A. in Architecture from KSU. Alston was an Assistant Professor of Architecture, Environmental Design, and Color Theory and Perception at KSU.
Throughout Alston’s history, she has explored different areas of the interdisciplinary arts and has developed distinct bodies of work. In recent years, she has been recognized for her interdisciplinary approach, which incorporates experimental processes and new methods. From 1989 to 2017, she shifted the focus from her earlier works—specific color and music perception—to more environmental and social concerns. Alston’s Earth’s Voice gives full voice to her enduring engagement with environmental concerns and also addresses social and political issues. Alston has used AI for development in some of her multimedia works. These works of art were on view at the Tambaran Gallery (NYC), The Island Weiss Gallery (NYC), The International Armory Art Expo (NYC), Art Line (Amsterdam), the Ohr Museum of Art, WAMA, and the Art Research Center (KC).
Her current focus and body of work bring together her history into a single, unified body, tying together all her previous bodies of work.
Alston's body of art, Convergence, which was created after spending time in Thailand, synthesizes these investigations into a cohesive visual language that merges geometry, ecology, perception, and structural inquiry. Across decades, Alston’s practice reflects a consistent commitment to experimentation, interdisciplinary dialogue, and evolving methodologies.
In Recon & Decon (Geo Art), Alston revisits the historical trajectory of geometric abstraction, deconstructing modernist formal systems and reassembling them within a postmodern framework. Her later series, Urban Art, addressed spatial congestion and constructed chaos within contemporary cities.
One of her earlier bodies of art, Parative (partitive) Ambiance, is a 5-year study of the perceptual interrelationships of color/light & music/sound. Her research led her to look at visual stimulation and/or sensory deprivation and the impact it had on the senses of living beings.
Alston’s has been a member of the following: Art Research Center, Kansas City • ArtTable, NYC • MOMA’s Drawing and Print Committee • MoMA’s Contemporary Art Council and the liaison between the Architectural & Design Department and the CAC • American Institute of Architects, NYC • National Arts Club, NYC.
Alston’s work is in the permanent collections of the NMWA, the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, and the Mississippi Museum of Art. In her earlier career, she received an award as Honored Artist from the MS Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She received a Bronze Award from the Japanese government for her design of the International Urban Art Plaza Competition as the only US winner out of 233 competitors from 40 countries.