An exhibition of new work, ARNOLDI & ARNOLDI (Charles & Natalie), by Charles Arnoldi and Natalie Arnoldi will open at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art on November 15 and extend through December 14.  An Opening Reception with the artists will be held on Friday, November 15 from 5-7 p.m.  A Gallery Talk with the artists and Rani Singh, Director of Special Projects at the Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills and formerly of the Modern and Contemporary Collections of the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, will be held on Saturday, November 16^th from 3-4 p.m.

A father and daughter exhibition pairs new work by consummate abstract artist, Charles Arnoldi, with the atmospheric place paintings and gouaches of Natalie Arnoldi. Despite the radical difference in approach, there is a subtle cohesion between these very distinctive bodies of work.

Charles Arnoldi has been following his inspiration and ideas for over 50 years making art. The history of his work reads, visually, like a long and ongoing dialogue between Charles and color, shape, and form. No matter the medium – whether oils, acrylics, canvas, charcoal, metal, paper, wood, or the burnt sticks from his earliest successful works – Charles sees himself primarily as a maker of objects. And these objects, with their complex constructions or simple balance, infused with the ideas and kinetic energy of their maker – above all, must have a life of their own.

In this exhibition are two new series inspired by a trip to the ruins of Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes. Charles was fascinated by the ruins, pulled into the mysteries of their seamless carved block construction. In the original design of the citadel, the stone blocks, though not uniform, are fit together in beautiful and seamless patterns, fit like the most massive and intricate puzzle. The geometric patterns of the place took hold of him, and Charles has been inspired by their unique beauty in several of the series he has created since his visit. It is easy to see the connection in the two sets of work he brings to this exhibition: a new set of sculptural wall-works of interlocking wood blocks, along with a selection of large acrylic paintings of joined blocks of color and lines in rich earth tones.

Natalie Arnoldi, who in addition to working as a full-time artist is pursuing a PhD in Marine Ecology at Stanford University, brings her signature darkly luminous paintings to the exhibition, including several new pieces featuring desolate gas stations at night. Having grown up in the “school” of her father’s studio, surrounded by artists in her home, perhaps the greatest lesson which Natalie took with her, she says, is her work ethic. Natalie witnessed the daily, persistent work that goes into creating works of art and to maintaining an artistic career.

However, Natalie’s aesthetic is fundamentally different from her father’s. Place-based: showing ocean scenes, shark fins disappearing into waves, night time freeways, railroad tracks in fog, lonely gas stations at night – these works have a clear narrative line which diverges from her father’s strictly abstract constructions of color and shape. And yet, these works, with their fogged and blurred borders and mysterious qualities, somehow also seem to push against the nature of representative art.

Evocative, the gas station works combine an architectural cleanness with a diaphanous use of light and darkness. While Charles’ works may challenge the viewer with seeing harmony in geometric patterns, finding the living quality of an object – Natalie’s work challenges the viewer to go inward with emotionally paradoxical scenes that elicit simultaneously a sense of familiarity and unease.

Beyond the inspiration of place and the architectural qualities of their work, there is a underlying sense of these disparate art works working together. While distinct and unique, the works of Arnoldi & Arnoldi (Charles & Natalie) speak to each other, conjuring a sense of some common, underlying, aesthetic DNA.

In addition to this unspoken dialogue, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art will present a dialogue between the artists and Rani Singh, on Saturday, November 16^th, from 3-4 p.m.

Rani Singh is Director of Special Projects at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills. Her work focuses on strategic planning and legacy management for artists, exhibition development, museum outreach, and long-term conservation practices. For over seventeen years she worked in Modern & Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Singh joined the GRI in 2000 as a scholar based on her work on experimental filmmaker and artist Harry Smith. At the Getty Singh was responsible for the planning and execution of Pacific Standard Time: Modern Art in Los Angeles and curated the painting and sculpture exhibition. She organized the Art on Screen initiative which focused on the hybridity between moving image media and the fine arts. In 2016 she was co-curator of the Beat Generation exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Singh has engaged extensively with archival preservation, avant-garde film, and contemporary art in a broad range of contexts. Since 1992 she has been the director of the Harry Smith Archives.