Jodi Gerbi | Feb 14 - Mar 15, 2025

Your work often features toys as central subjects. What draws you to these objects, and how do they reflect deeper human emotions and experiences?

Toys are deeply tied to childhood, and everyone has some connection to them, so they naturally invite the viewer into the painting. Their bright colors and smooth surfaces create a sense of comfort, allowing space to reflect on both the light and darkness present in the piece.

While I appreciate figurative art, when I paint people, it shifts the focus to that individual—prompting curiosity about who they are, their history, and appearance. It becomes very specific. Toys, on the other hand, provide a human-like presence without the same judgment or assumptions we tend to project onto actual people.

How do you balance the contrasting elements of darkness and light in your paintings to convey the exhibition’s themes of innocence and perseverance?

The balance comes from the attention and detail I put into the objects themselves. Even in darker moments, they receive the same level of care and precision, emphasizing that both light and darkness hold equal importance.

Do you face any challenges when creating highly realistic work? How do you overcome them?

Each painting comes with its own challenges. To overcome them, I take a step back and ask myself some technical questions about what I’m trying to achieve. Once I approach it from a problem-solving mindset, I stop panicking and start viewing the challenge as a puzzle to figure out, which makes it much more manageable.