GIANNA COMMITO

May 23 - July 19, 2025

OPENING RECEPTION & DIALOGUE: Friday, May 23 | 6 - 8 PM. 
Dialogue with the artist from 6 - 6:30 PM.

Pentimenti is proud to present Working Pattern, Gianna Commito’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.

In everyday life, the ubiquity of stripes on objects, clothing, or signage serves various functions: they warn, adorn, and direct us. They are, in essence, a constant working pattern. In Gianna Commito’s work, stripes become underlying structures, forming a foundation upon which compositions are built. Influenced by architecture and building materials, her practice explores the tension between public and private spaces, and the evolution and disintegration of the built environment.

Commito orchestrates intersecting fields of color, setting them in dynamic contrast with gestures formed by looping shadows, twisting brushstrokes, and pointillist dabs. Her works on paper and paintings are created with casein, a milk-based medium used since ancient times to decorate wood surfaces, applied to paper or wood panels primed with a traditional ground of marble dust and hide glue. Casein’s quick-drying and sometimes erratic behavior encourages spontaneity, allowing Gianna to engage in a tactile, layered process that fosters immediacy and physical connection with the work.

Defined edges, a sumptuous palette, and concentrated painterly gestures lend her compositions a visual intensity that transcends the flatness of a screen, demanding to be experienced in person. Scale also plays a key role: Working Pattern includes some of her most intimate and compact works.

Gianna Commito received her MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, and her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY. Recent exhibitions include Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY; Abattoir Gallery, Cleveland, OH; Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Gazebo Gallery, Kent, OH. She has shown at institutions: the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH; Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; and The Drawing Center, New York, NY. Her work is in the collections of the Akron Art Museum and the Columbus Museum of Art. Commito has participated in residencies and received several awards, including the Alfred-Düsseldorf Artist-in-Residence Program, Germany; Zygote Press, Cleveland, OH; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; the Wayne P. Lawson Prize, Columbus Museum of Art; nido, invited by Michelle Grabner, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy; and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

ADDITIONAL EVENT | OLD CITY GALLERY WALK: Friday, June 6 | 5 - 8 PM.

For inquiries, please contact mail@pentimenti.com or +1 215 625 9990.  The gallery is free and open to the public.