GR2: Scenes from Nurture - Leo Frontini

Scenes from Nurture is a solo exhibition by artist Leo Frontini at GR2 Gallery running from August 19th to September 6th, 2023.

Art goes live online at 12 noon PT on 8/19/23.

Giant Robot Gallery is pleased to present Scenes From Nurture, a new exhibition by Cleveland-born, Los Angeles-based artist Leo Frontini. Drawing from the well of time, memory, and his subconscious, these recent pictures explore the notion of family and the relationships we hold that give form to who we are today. Within his often surreal representations, dreams and memories seem to exist on the same plane. Looking past the idealized family structure and going into the mind of each protagonist that invites you into the composition, one experiences visualizations of idle bliss, tension, and melancholy.

Frontini has found painting to be an escape from reality while also bringing him closer to the world, relationships, and himself. His formative years were spent battling depression and the results of several sports-related head injuries. Nearing the end of high school, Frontini was pushed to pursue the arts by his father, Thomas Frontini, who has been a painter his entire life and is a significant influence and mentor in his son's creative practice. In the solitariness of quarantine, Frontini began an intensive study of painting the figure. His practice is marked by a sense of admiration and even obsession with the great masters of the past. His recent pictures play with the relationship of figures and distorted architecture. Exploring color and graphic abstraction of the figure and a space, his range of influences is revealed as he pulls from all periods of art history, his lived experience, and his subconscious. A visual intermingling of the past, present, and unknown provide a balance of harmony and tension.

The artist has written a brief narrative for each painting that informs the piece without giving it all away. Frontini creates with the viewer in mind, hoping the work will give them a moment of pause and reflection. Perhaps it may provide a break from their reality or a means by which they can dive deeper into understanding themselves and how nurture has played a role in their life.

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Finely rendered oil painting with dark lighting and muddy coloring. A white lynx like creature stands, looking at the viewer with its front paws resting on a dark blue sphere with a human face. The lynx's tail is a blossoming flower with a hummingbird drinking from it. Atop the lynx's back is a blue bird.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #01 - “Protector”
$ 2,500.00
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Oil painting with very rich, deep greens. A nude person with short curly blonde hair is half submerged in a body of water, with their head, shoulders and chest exposed and the rest of their body laying in the waterfall. The current looks strong, going downward.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #02 - “Bather”
$ 500.00
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Highly rendered oil painting with lots of blues and warm greens. A woman sits on her knees under a tree with falling fruit. In the foreground is a shovel in a mound of dirt. She holds a dead bird in her hand, above a small dug grave.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #03 - “Bird Burial”
$ 3,000.00
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Oil painting with dark colors and lighting, of a small white bird seen from overhead resting atop a dark mound of dirt. It holds something circular in its claw, and the only light source is a streak of light going diagonally over the bird.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #04 - “Bird Burial II”
$ 500.00
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Highly rendered oil painting of a woman with blue hair and baggy clothes, sitting at a patio table. She has her hands on a yellow thin wooden object. The table also has a piano within it, which a headless person plays.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #05 - “Patio”
$ 3,000.00
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Highly rendered oil painting of an old man sitting in a yellow patio chair, drinking wine with a disconnected hand. The table the glass is on extended out and up, into the sky. A woman floats towards it with a falling plate of fruit.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #08 - “Father”
$ 3,000.00
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Highly rendered oil painting with deep reddish purples and greenish blues. A slight overhead view shows the back of 2 boys in t-shirts sitting next to one another, one with the arm around the other. They look off to a large open sketchbook, where an arm draws with a pencil.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #09 - “From Life”
$ 1,500.00
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Highly rendered oil painting of a dimly lit room interior. A shirtless man secures his pants with a belt, and looks into the mirror. The mirror shows a disintegrating human body, fading away into nothing. A potted sparse plant is in the foreground and a person emerges from another room with an empty plate.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #10 - “Late for Dinner”
$ 3,000.00
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Finely rendered oil painting of a girl sitting on a floating surface that looks like a piece of paper. She has green hair and looks down, smoking a cigarette. Behind her is an outside patio without any furniture. A bright streak of light is behind her lighting up a yellow wall.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #11 - “Still”
$ 1,500.00
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Finely rendered oil painting with dark colors and lighting and a black and purple background. A lengthy person wearing a white ruffled shirt and pants walks, the viewer seeing only the profile view. The ruffles deteriorate into water the lower down on the pants. He holds a long stemmed leaf in one hand.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #12 - “Saunter II”
$ 1,250.00
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Highly rendered oil painting of a pair of nude women standing at a bathroom sink, with colorful walls, doors and sink. A medicine cabinet mirror shows a man in the bathtub. The sink shoots out a stream of water to a tiny pink boy with an open head.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #13 - “August Showers”
$ 3,000.00
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Highly rendered oil painting on a bright reddish orange background. A brown, furry creature akin to a hare or a dog stands, crouched over into itself, atop of a flat cracked blue surface.
Leo Frontini - Scenes from Nurture - #15 - “MAGNUS”
$ 1,750.00