Artist Statement

"My work has often dealt with the dystopian possibilities of climate change. Given the extreme rains in California this year, I pose the question in this piece for Pangea Seed, what if? What if we lost entire cities to floods? Would we adapt to continue to inhabit these spaces?

I present an abundant still life of exotic foods—like those from Dutch still-life paintings—contrasted with an Aquarium-like view of a lost, underwater city. If a city was lost to flooding, who would be in a position to adapt? Those who can afford the impossible.

The post-disaster landscape is at the crux of beauty and horror. I'm interested in how quickly we can become complacent with things that were once considered unimaginable. A "new normal. As a species, we flatten experience in order to accept it, but how and to what end?"

- Robert Minervini

Artist Bio

Robert Minervini is an artist whose work examines spatial environments and notions of utopia and dystopia through multi-layered paintings, murals, and public artworks. Utilizing tropes from art history, science fiction, and quotidian life to reference places both real and imagined, he depicts invented spaces that revel in artificiality and allude to parallel realities. Overgrown cityscapes, saccharin landscapes, and lush botanical still-life arrangements cohabit liminal spaces that aim to address the ecological impacts of humanity on the landscape.

His work has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums as well as in public spaces. He currently lives and works in Florence, Italy, and Oakland, California.