📅 Exhibition Dates: October 10, 2025 → November 1, 2025
🎉 Opening Reception: Friday, October 10, 2025 from 6 – 8 PM
📍 Location: Abend Gallery | 1261 Delaware St, Denver, CO 80204

Gina Matarazzo invites you into a storybook world where woodland characters dress for the occasion and flowers whisper secrets. Painted in oil on gessoboard and oil on Arches watercolor paper, these intimate portraits and tableaus celebrate companionship, ritual, and the humor of seeing ourselves in animals. Finely patterned garments, painted frames on select works, and abundant botanicals create a sense of wonder that is joyful, tender, and carefully crafted for close looking.
 

Artist Statement

There is a long, rich, world-wide history of humans being captivated by our animal counterparts. From architecture to textiles, books and films to tattoos...can you even think of ONE area in our culture that animals have NOT been incorporated into our lives?
 

I enjoy keeping this historical tradition going, musing about our most common four-footed friends. What do they really think of us? Do they think we are just some kind of giant animals? Do they see us as being separate from them in any way? Humans dream of spirit animals...do they dream of spirit humans? So many questions to ponder! Every painting I create is really just an ode to their sincere little lives and our fond connection with them. I wouldn't want to imagine a world without animals, so I imagine a world with ALL animals. I hope my new collection brings you joy and warmth in your heart! -Gina Matarazzo

Plan your visit: We are open Tuesday to Saturday, 12 PM – 4 PM, and by appointment. Call 303-355-0950 for assistance.

Parking and Directions to Abend Gallery

Karina Rodríguez produces hyperrealistic oil paintings that challenge perceptual boundaries between painted and photographic imagery. The Dominican Republic-born artist, working professionally since 2009, constructs her compositions from photographic references, investing considerable time in achieving technical precision. Her still life arrangements incorporate commonplace items that speak to contemporary daily experience, rendered with such exactitude that viewers frequently mistake her canvases for photographs. Rodríguez completed formal studies in history and art criticism to deepen her artistic foundation beyond technical skill. Her work has gained recognition through exhibitions at significant institutions including the Museo Español de Arte Moderno and her homeland's Modern Art Museum, where her pieces have been presented alongside master hyperrealists. Born in La Romana in 1988, she continues developing her practice through ongoing competitions and exhibitions. Her paintings are held in numerous private collections worldwide and she is represented by select galleries across the United States including Abend Gallery.