Robert Minervini: L’Attesa

Opening Reception | July 9, 2022 | 3–5 pm

Rena Bransten Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Oakland, California and Florence, Italy based artist Robert Minervini. This is their fourth solo exhibition with the artist.

Minervini’s work revels in intoxicating color palettes and precisely rendered forms, with keen attention to balance and bringing the depth of the three-dimensional world to the two-dimensional picture plane. His work depicts a “new naturalism”—one that is tethered to the rich traditions of western painting, while making connections with contemporary ideas about beauty and the sublime. The overall effect is a welcoming one, and evokes a desire to step inside his paintings and stay awhile.

Formally, the works focus on interior and exterior spaces; objects and plants populate the foreground while California landscapes and cityscapes stretch out through the window behind them. While congruent with past work and an interest in built environments, the new paintings are intrinsically linked with the circumstances of the recent years in which they were made: the wildfires in Northern California, long periods of time spent in isolation due to the pandemic, and the artist having relocated to a new home abroad. The title of the exhibition L’Attesa, which translates to “the waiting,” points to the artist’s experiences during this time, punctuated by feelings of anxiety, moments of calm, but most markedly by the in-between-ness of waiting. One wonders, waiting for what? The collapse of climate, the end of the pandemic, a day without an orange sky? The works hinge on the possibility of the future and the anxiety of the present, wondering simply: what comes next?

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