Meet born and raised in New York and a Phoenix transplant, Robert Gentile, a skilled artist who has over the last five years rediscovered his passion for art after taking a long hiatus creating riveting works in a variety of mediums including spray paint, acrylic, markers, and pastels.
New York and graffiti are where the artist derived much of his inspiration for his work morphing this with his life influences today. Speaking further with the artist he said, “There is an aesthetic beauty in everything around us and I try to incorporate life's experiences into what I produce.”
His work is a hybrid of classical and urban, with early roots in graffiti he has explored and adapted finding his voice through the years resulting in what he calls “visually stimulating, high contrast imagery that the audience can connect with emotionally on some level.”The focus of his artwork varies exploring a variety of subjects including his main inspiration, his daughter found in many of his works.
Gentile was traditionally trained at the New York Institute of Technology where he obtained his Bachelors of Fine Arts in animation and he also has a Masters of Business Administration. Gentile has a background as a mural artist, a graphic designer, and an art teacher and he currently devotes his spare time as a volunteer with Free Arts of Arizona as a mentor. He has extensively exhibited his artwork in Phoenix at local galleries including {9} The Gallery, RAW Natural Born Artists, and in 2014 won the Thermal Phx art competition at the monOrchid. He has been featured in several local publications most recently in LocalRevibe, Phoenix New Times and YabYum Music and Arts.
Next up for Robert Gentile’s will be a much anticipated solo exhibition Paradigm Shift in Shade Gallery at the monOrchid with an Opening Reception on First Friday, October 2nd from 6-10pm. Paradigm Shift explores his continued growth as an artist and his love of graffiti culture, showcasing a diverse and stunning body of mixed media work that the artist has created exclusively for his solo exhibition. View more work from the artist at http://www.rawartists.org/robertgentile.
