Robert Minervini

First coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516, the phrase Utopia is typically used to describe an ideal place or state, or any visionary system of political, social, environmental, or moral perfection. It is also derived from a Greek expression meaning “no place,” suggesting a perfection that can only exist in the realm of imagination.

My work presents the viewer with an invented space that is based on, but slightly askew from, reality.  In these non-places, nature is subverted and change is constant as architectural sites are being constructed or destroyed alluding to the making of a social utopia and / or dystopia. My experience as a collaborative mural artist has informed my interest in the ways viewers can add to the narrative of a painting, both as audience and contributors.

I work primarily with acrylic paint on canvas creating often large-scale works that evoke ideas of the sublime and our contemporary relationship to nature and urban spaces.  My imagery is generated from an archive of photographs both personal and researched.  I digitally fuse together these images to create an invented place. I often use highly artificial colors to further remove the image from its reality, and to call attention to the origin of the digital image.  While I am interested in the process of working from digitally processed imagery, I place a strong emphasis on spontaneity, materiality, and process in the making of my paintings.

Biography

He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his BFA from Tyler School of Art. He has exhibited nationally including a solo shows with Marine Contemporary, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, a two person exhibition with Johansson Projects, and group exhibitions at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 941 Geary, The Brooklyn Historical Society, and the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. He was nominated for a Joan Mitchell foundation grant and has been awarded the Murphy & Cadogan Fellowship by the San Francisco Foundation, the Edwin Austin Abbey Mural Fellowship by the National Academy of Fine Art, and the Carmela Corso Scholarship by Tyler School of Art. In 2013 he will be a resident artist at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Kala Art Institute, and has been a resident at Headlands Center of the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Root Division Studio Program.  His work has been published in Beautiful Decay Magazine, New American Paintings No. 91, and “Mural Art: Large Scale Art from Walls Around the World.” His work has been reviewed in Modern Painters Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Art Practical. He currently lives and works in San Francisco and is represented by Marine Contemporary in Venice, California.