Richard Pietruska is a highly respected professor at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California and has been teaching for over 40 years.  Many of his former students are the leading automotive designers in the United States, Europe, Asia and Brazil.

He is also a member of the AFAS or Automobile Fine Arts Society.  Richard has won the prestigious Peter Helck Award for 3 years in a row and numerous Athena Awards of Excellence at Pebble Beach.

His career as an automotive designer started early as a winner of the Fisher Body Craftsman Guild and he won a scholarship to study at the ArtCenter.  There he received both a Bachelor of Science Degree in Automotive Design and a Masters of Fine Arts Degree.  He has a background in various mediums and now his focus is on automotive sculpture using various techniques ranging from bronze, cast resin, fiberglass, stainless steel, plastics and whatever else comes along that is new and exciting.

These sculptures exhibit the dynamic fluid motion of the automobile while simplifying the basic design lines of some of the most exotic vehicles of the past and present.  They are usually finished using automotive paints and techniques.

Richard is also one of the few automobile sculptors to have been chosen to do the artwork for the Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance poster.

His work has been featured in various magazines including Road & Track, Automobile Magazine, The Robb Report, AUTOAficionado, Rosso Ferrari, The Star (Mercedes Benz Magazine), Showcase Magazine, Pilota, Octane Magazine and Garage Magazine.

His sculptures and other works are in many private collections and automotive museums around
the world.

MUSEUMS AND EXHIBITS:

  • VELOCITY, the Art of Motion at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, MN -2008

  • The Grace Museum, Abilene, TX – 2008

  • Kemp Auto Museum, St. Louis, MO -2007

  • Art. Automobiles. Passion at the Krasl Art Center, Michigan -2005

  • Automotive Art Expo at the Coast Gallery, Pebble Beach, CA -2004

  • San Diego Automotive Museum

  • Dominoes Class Car Museum

  • Otis Chandler’s Vintage Museum

  • The CAR, The ART, Los Angeles -1992

  • Ferrari Museum of Art, Japan

  • Mullin Automotive Museum, Oxnard, CA

He has also designed awards and trophies for many automotive events like the Car of the Year Award for Automobile Magazine, Cranbrook Concours d’Elegance, the Petersen Museum and the Newport Beach Concours d’Elegance, Greystone Mansion Concours Beverly Hills.

FORMER STUDENTS: TO NAME A FEW

  • Shiro Nakamura, former head of Nissan Design

  • Frank Stephenson, former head of McLaren Design(McLaren P1)

  • Franz Von Holzhausen, head of Tesla Design

  • Chris Bangle, former head of BMW design

  • Henrik Fisker, head of Fisker Automotive

  • SangYup Lee, Vice President of Hyundai Design

  • J Mays, former head of Ford design

  • Freeman Thomas, Porsche, VW, DaimlerChrysler and Ford (Audi TT)

  • Ken Okuyama, designed the Enzo Ferrari

  • Sasha Selipanov, Koenigsegg, Bugatti, etc.

  • Anders Warmings, Director of Design Rolls Royce

  • Achim Anscheidt, former Bugatti design director

  • Grant Larson, designer for Porsche (Porsche Boxster)

  • Luc Donckerwolke,  Hyundai Motor Group

  • Derek Jenkins, head of design at Lucid Motors

  • Tisha Johnson, former head of Volvo Design

  • Nick Gronenthal, head of design at Volvo

  • Karim Habib, head designer Infiniti

  • Jiaqi Han, designer at Aston Martin

Contact Me.

rpietruska@gmail.com
310-980-6423
3131 6th Steet
Santa Monica, CA 90405