Exhibition dates: January 19 – April 21, 2006
Artists: Matt Gil and Stephen Giannetti
Opening Reception: Thursday January 19, 5 – 7 p.m.
Gallery 555
555 12th Street, Oakland, CA
Lobby Hours: Monday through Friday 7 a.m.– 6 p.m.;
Third Thursdays 7 a.m-8 p.m.

Open and free to the public. BART, AC Transit and Wheelchair accessible.

Presented by the Oakland Museum of California Professional Services division
Professional Services Exhibition Archive

Matt Gil Horizontal and Vertical Hold, 2005 aluminum 80” x 144” x 30”

Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) Off-Site presents the work of local artists Matt Gil and Stephen Giannetti at Gallery 555 in Oakland City Center. This exhibition features Gil’s large-scale, playful sculptures and Giannetti’s process-oriented paintings. In combination, the artwork generates pulsating energy, stemming from a shared affinity for simple forms and rhythmic sensibilities.

Matt Gil’s abstractions resemble everyday objects-animal shapes, body parts, posters, symbols, and vessels. Inspired by the simplicity and power of these shapes, Gil has revisited these forms throughout his career. His sculptures represent the artist’s ongoing dialogue with the elegance and economy of line reminiscent of the turn-of-the-century modernists.

Gil is drawn to the challenge of balancing the form of a sculpture, the negative space within the sculpture, and the perceived space surrounding the piece. This perceived space, or aura, around his sculptures is very tangible. This pressure slicing and squeezing the sculpture from all sides, is considered by Gil to be the real force that gives life to his work. Gil explains, “It is the beautiful balance between these three factors that I look for and which gives emotion and soul to the piece.”

Gil has exhibited his sculptures for the past 25 years in solo and group exhibitions throughout California. His work is represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the San Jose Museum of Art; Oracle Corporation, Belmont, CA; Saks Fifth Avenue, New York City; the Sydney International Airport, Australia; among others. Gil received his BA from San Jose State University.

Stephen Giannetti’s lush paintings represent the artist’s ongoing investigations into colorfield abstractions. Each canvas is comprised of six layers of precisely painted circles, each about the size of a tennis ball. Giannetti mixes his own tints, using only the three primary colors on the color wheel. Working with deliberate and steady brush strokes, Giannetti creates a vibrant, pulsating grid of translucent color.

Stephen Giannetti Chromascene Four, 2004 oil on French polyester 40” x 40”

The controlled color combinations and kaleidoscopic effects of his paintings elevate them beyond simple exercises in design and color theory. Giannetti explains, “I set out ten years ago to define the function of painted space: what a painting can be, and what a painting should be. Among other things, it should be self-reflexive, inherently aware of its own history. It should be a new space, one that has never been seen before. But most importantly, it should be visually interesting…it should be about seeing, not about reading."

Giannetti’s work has been been shown both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Heather Marx Gallery, San Francisco; the Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco; the Young-Eun Museum in Kwangju-city, Korea; and his large-scale public commission, Blue, for the City of Davis Police Station. He received his MFA from the University of California, Irvine, and did post-graduate work at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He received his BA from the University of California, Davis.

Matt Gil and Stephen Giannetti are represented by the Heather Marx Gallery, 415.627.9111, www.heathermarxgallery.com.

Gallery 555 is managed by the Oakland Museum of California’s Professional Services Division. Professional Services is a museum department that shares the institution’s resources with the community by developing exhibitions of fine art and artifact in public venues. For more information about Professional Services, please go to www.museumca.org/off-site.

Oakland City Center is a focal point for commercial and government activity in downtown Oakland. For more information about Oakland City Center, go to www.oaklandcitycenter.com.