Ken Auster

Artist Biography

It was in his years in Long Beach, California, where Ken Auster grew up with his feet deeply planted in the surfing culture, that he first learned to express his art talent. Caught up in the ground swell of the 1960s surfing culture, Ken not only plunged into the sport of surfing but into the art and graphics of surfing as well. While working his way towards a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from Long Beach State University, Ken built one of the world's most prominent silkscreen and T-shirt companies, creating now-legendary surfing art, prints and posters that adorned surfers from Belmont Shores to Hawaii to Mexico. His surfing images, silk-screened as original prints on paper, became the fine art of this beach culture, and today, represent the classic surf art of the past century.

At the heart of Ken Auster's art, prints and posters was always the awareness of the fine line between man-made and nature. In the mid-1990s, Ken moved to a more serious art level - involving him with the immediacy of oil paints as opposed to the process-burdened medium of printmaking. Throwing himself into the splendor of plein air painting, Ken discovered the richness and broad colors of the city life he long avoided. As he will tell you, he rejoiced in this newfound ability to paint anything and everything - cafes, train stations, airports, street scenes, and of course, never far away, was the beach, his first love.

In a relatively short time since this transition to plein air painting, Ken Auster has moved to the forefront of American contemporary impressionists. He consistently walks away with gold medals and first place awards at juried exhibits. His art, prints and posters are collected by some of the most respected galleries and patrons.Renowned for his classic surf art, Ken Auster now sees and paints a bold, dynamically changing world, whether it is London, Venice (Italy), San Francisco, Carmel, Napa Valley, or Baja, Mexico. He shares with us the uncomplicated but moving stories on canvas - simply and effectively, documenting the ordinary in an unordinary manner.

Ken Auster Art, Prints and Posters Collection