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 received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his BFA from Tyler School of Art. His work has been exhibited internationally, 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 José Museum of Art, 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.
Minervini has completed multiple murals and public art commissions nationally including through the San Francisco Arts Commission, The Alameda County Arts Commission, The City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs, 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, 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. His work has been reviewed in the LA Times, Modern Painters, San Francisco Chronicle, Art ltd., and featured in ArtWeek LA, 7x7 Magazine, and The Huffington Post. Minervini’s work is in the collections of the San José Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the City and County of San Francisco, and many private and corporate collections.
Robert Minervini currently lives and works in Florence, Italy & Oakland, California.
