A Retrospective, 1964 to Present by Joe Oddo Sicily Revisited by Jean Marchese Gallagher

The son of Sicilian immigrants, Joe Oddo is a long-time resident of the San Francisco Bay area and a self-described “traditionalist” painter. During the 1960s he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with James Weeks whose influence is seen in his works. He taught at various colleges including the San Francisco Art Institute, Stanford University and the University of California, Davis. After teaching in rural schools for the Nevada Arts Council and painting high desert landscapes, he returned… Show more to California and, through his art, began to explore the urban landscapes of Oakland and San Francisco as well as the popular Bay Area sport of skulling. He continues to refine his painting technique and says that by questioning his use of subject, color and drawing, a painting “logic” emerges which he cannot articulate before he begins, but one that results from a long, intuitive visual struggle. His show at the Museo Italo Americano is a retrospective of Joe’s 50-year artistic career.

Jean Marchese Gallagher has a Doctor of Arts from NYU and has been a Professor of Art at CSU Chico since 1990. She has shown her work nationally at universities, galleries and museums and has been a recipient of many grants including the National Endowment for the Arts. Her show “Sicily Revisited” is a series of oil paintings on canvas that focuses on the Sicilian and Southern Italian dance called the “tarantella”, which symbolically resurrects those persons bitten by the tarantula spider. The artist’s grandmother, Rosie Lentini, a native from Capizzi, Sicily, danced the dance from memory at American family gatherings. Her “Haori” paintings, which are derivative from the Japanese kimono, were influenced by her grandmother’s self-taught ability to work with fabric. Though Rosie could not read English, she managed to design and sew garments via the pictures contained in the pattern instructions as a seamstress in New York City. Following her grandmother’s approach to sewing, Jean developed an excellent sense of visual literacy.

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