current projects.
STILL POINT
New Works by Sheila Ghidini
date. August 23 thru September 23
opening: Saturday, August
23, from 3 to 5​
Still point No.1,2025, graphite, colored pencil and metallic ink on paper, 19.5 X 19.5 X 2 inches, framed
STILL POINT
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered, Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
T.S. Eliot
Four Quartets
Pastine Projects is pleased to present Sheila Ghidini's new series, "Still Point." The exhibition consists of new drawings created with ink, graphite and metallic paint on paper. Ghidini will also include one of her deconstructed chair sculptures.
Ghidini’s work is deeply influenced by her fascination with structure and the geometry of architecture. Her early practice focused on disassembling and reconstructing common chairs, a process that allowed her to explore new perspectives—particularly the interplay of negative space and structural form.
In this new series, Ghidini builds on the principles of negative space that informed her earlier assemblages, while expanding her inquiry to include ideas of stasis and movement, control and chance. She also draws on the formal purity of elemental shapes—squares and circles—to create compositions that balance precision with unpredictability. These opposing forces generate a dynamic tension that Ghidini intentionally pursues, both as a mode of visual expression and as a reflection of the contradictions inherent in lived experience.
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Sheila Ghidini's work encompasses drawing, sculpture, installation, and site specific public art. She has been shown and collected in private and public collections including the Achenbach Collection of Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Runneymede Sculpture Farm in Woodside, CA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She attended Hartford Art School, University of Hartford and did graduate work at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. She completed an M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving the Sylvan and Pam Coleman Memorial Fellowship. She was an artist-in residence at The Headlands Center for the Arts and The American Academy in Rome Summer program. She has received grants from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the Krasner-Pollack Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Marcelle Labaudt Memorial Fund, Rockefeller Foundation and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Sheila has completed a number of public art projects in the Bay Area and beyond. She presently resides in San Francisco and has taught art throughout the Bay Area, including University of California, Berkeley, California College of Arts, San Francisco State University and University of California Extensions. Ghidini is represented by Pastine Projects in San Francisco, CA.
In Conversation: Eva Bovenzi & Richard Whittaker
Artist Conversation with Eva Bovenzi and Richard Whittaker discussing Eva's solo exhibition, The Traffic Between Heaven and Earth. The conversation took place at Pastine Projects on, Saturday, April 26.
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The discussion centered around Bovenzi’s solo exhibition, The Traffic Between Heaven and Earth, which was inspired by a month-long artist residency at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi, Italy, in 2022.
Assisi—the birthplace of Saint Francis—is steeped in centuries of spiritual tradition. The Basilica di San Francesco, adorned with murals by Giotto, Lorenzetti, Martini, and Cimabue, is a place where the spiritual and physical worlds vividly converge. Through repeated visits, Bovenzi’s initial admiration for these works deepened, as she came to recognize the enduring human impulses they express.
“As I began focusing more on the content of the paintings,” Bovenzi explains, “I was struck by how many of the narratives depicted a communication between earthly and heavenly spheres. Angels descended to earth, prayers rose to the heavens, celestial rays conferred stigmata, and demons were cast down. I couldn’t help but see all this back-and-forth movement as emblematic of our deep-seated longing to locate ourselves within the universe.”
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Eva Bovenzi received her MFA from CCA in Oakland, and is represented by Pastine Projects in San Francisco and Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver. She has exhibited widely in galleries, museums and non-profit spaces in the United States, and internationally. Her work has been shown and collected by institutions that include the Phoenix, Long Beach, Berkeley and Oakland Art Museums; the Achenbach Foundation of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Cuenca Museum of Art in Ecuador; the Biennale Internazionale in Florence, Italy; and the Assisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition 2022, in Assisi, Italy.
Richard Whittaker is the co-founder, with Rue Harrison, of the nonprofit Society for the ReCognition of Art and the founding editor of works & conversations magazine (since 1998). He previously founded The Secret Alameda (1990–1996) and since 2010, has served as West Coast editor of Parabola magazine. Though academically trained in philosophy (B.A.) and clinical psychology (M.A.), with graduate studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Whittaker’s engagement with art spans over four decades and includes photography, ceramics, painting, and sculpture.
360 Langton Street. Suite 201 San Francisco CA. 94103 | appointments; pastineprojects@gmail.com
360 Langton Street. San Francisco CA 94103 | pastineprojects@gmail.com
about.
Gallery
Pastine Projects is a contemporary art gallery that champions established and mid-career artists, especially women, who have contributed to the culture of the Bay Area through a deep commitment to their studio practice. Throughout their careers, they have received numerous awards, and their achievements have been recognized in the press and other publications. We aspire to foster a greater awareness of their remarkable and timeless work.
Gallery Hours
The gallery is open Saturday from 1 to 5 during exhibition or by appointment at all times: pastineprojects@gmail.com
360 Langton Street. Suite 201 San Francisco CA 94103.
Francesca Pastine. Owner
contact.
address. 360 Langton Street. Suite 201
San Francisco. CA 94103
hours. by appointment pastineprojects@gmail.com