Robert Minervini

Robert Minervini's work examines notions of utopia through constructed environments, still-life, and landscape. In this body of work, arrangements of stenciled classical Roman sculptures, cacti and succulents, Etruscan urns, and Egyptian figurines, are all placed on shelves inside tiled vitrines. It is a proposition that both honors and disrupts traditions of still-life and landscape painting. Disconnected from any cultural significance, it is unclear whether these items are relics of the past, objects of the present, or possibilities of the future. Reminiscent of a cabinet of curiosity, this constructed world is as familiar as it is foreign. Minervini has exhibited his work nationally in museums and galleries and is held in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the San Francisco Arts Commission Public and Civic Art Collection, as well as many private and corporate collections. He is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco and Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York City. Minervini lives and works in Oakland, California.