The exhibition focuses on twelve large scale abstract works, produced in 2012–2013.  For nearly four decades, Gastaldi has pursued abstract work in painting, sculpture, landscape design, assemblages, video, writing and poetry.  He actively exhibited and sold his work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, mainly through galleries in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County.  In recent decades, though still championed among local collectors and dealers, he has spent most of his time refining his art, visiting museum and gallery exhibits, as well as attending biennale exhibitions and art festivals in Europe and North America.  Today, Gastaldi devotes much of his time to corporate clients, working on large scale commissions for the restaurant industry, public buildings, parks and resorts.  His work is included in museum collections in America and Asia.

“The exercise of analyzing fresh ideas of younger artists and studying

the works of modern masters is a source of intellectual and visual stimulation

that causes me to react.”

– Jerome Gastaldi

JEROME GASTALDI was born in Fresno, California, in 1945.  He is largely a self-taught artist that began working with found objects in the 1960s and since then has experimented with many transformations in his work over the past forty plus years.  In addition to painting and sculpture, he is also a printmaker, poet and filmmaker.  In recent years, Gastaldi has begun to experiment with conceptual interactive video themes focused on what he terms as ‘divino’ comprehension and spiritual enlightenment.  His studio is located in Fallbrook, CA, where he has a ranch largely devoted to his art with landscape reshaping and open space projects that relate to his sculpture.  This is inclusive of a private art gallery where he exhibits his work for personal viewing, although it is also open to the public.  

In the 1980s, Gastaldi was the founder of the Modern Art Museum in Santa Ana, CA, and hosted several important exhibits including the paintings of David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, Rufino Tamayo and others.  He also was the director and owner of FACT Gallery in Laguna Beach.  He displayed the works of local artists as well as exhibitions of European masters, Graffiti art and American POP art, including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Keith Hering and Sam Francis.  A group show of Cubism on Paper included the works of Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso and others.

Gastaldi is also an author.  Two of his popular books include: Keep an Eye on Your Soul, published in 2010, and Art & Reality, (under the name Robert J. Abbott), published in 1997.  Both books have been widely used for educational purposes worldwide.