Robert Minervini
Press Release
FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY is excited to announce the fifth exhibition in its seasonal, online exclusive series. Veiled Realities marks the first gallery solo exhibition of painter Robert Minervini - based in Florence, Italy and Oakland, California. The exhibition features new and recent works by the artist since his first appearance in the 27th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in 2023. The exhibition will be on view from 1 October through 31 December - online only, with a small selection of works physically installed in the gallery throughout the run of the show.
Minervini says of this collection of paintings . . .
Veiled Realities explores the complex relationship between nature and culture, creating invented worlds that feel both familiar and strange. This collection, titled "Veiled Realities," brings together landscapes and still lifes that question our perception of the real. Drawing from my personal experiences with the California landscape, some works depict grand, sweeping vistas with a moody color palette that echoes the unsettling beauty of wildfire skies. Other paintings shift focus to intimate domestic spaces, where common objects and plants are re-framed to reflect on art historical traditions. By presenting these different scenes side by side, I invite viewers to consider how our understanding of "place" is always layered with personal experience, memory, and influence.
My process deliberately blurs the lines between what is real and what is a construct. I begin by digitally collaging photographs, then translate these manipulated images onto canvas using a variety of techniques—from precise hand painting to the more spontaneous gestures of spray paint and airbrush. This approach creates an intentional tension between the natural and the contrived. Ultimately, through this layered process, I seek to challenge the viewer's perception of realism itself. Each painting is a reflection on how we see and depict the world, revealing that our reality is often a carefully constructed image, a surface that both shows and conceals.
Press Release cont'd
Robert Minervini is an artist working in painting, mural painting, printmaking, and site-specific public art. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his BFA from Tyler School of Art. His work has been exhibited nationally, including solo shows with Hirschl & Adler Modern, NYC; Edward Cella Gallery, LA; Rena Bransten Gallery, SF; as well as group and two-person exhibitions with the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, Torrance Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Palo Alto Art Center, Schneider Museum of Art, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He is a recipient of the Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship by the San Francisco Foundation, and the Carmela Corso Scholarship by Tyler School of Art. He has completed multiple murals and public art commissions nationally including through the San Francisco Arts Commission, The Alameda County Arts Commission, and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. He has been a resident artist at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Headlands Center of the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. His art has been published in New American Paintings (No. 91 and No. 109), Beautiful Decay, and Mural Art: Large Scale Art from Walls around the World. Minervini’s work has been reviewed in the LA Times, Modern Painters, San Francisco Chronicle, and Art Ltd., and featured in ArtWeek LA, 7x7 Magazine, and The Huffington Post. His work is in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the City and County of San Francisco, and many private and corporate collections. He currently lives and works in Florence, Italy, and Oakland, California.