BIOGRAPHY

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Gerry Stecca was raised in a scientifically oriented environment; however, the artist gene runs strong in the family, eventually trumping his earlier academic interests. A distracted yet ever curious teen, his first significant art experience involved drawings of the human figure that earned him a legendary three days suspension from high school, institutionally remembered to this date. Soon after moving to the United States with his family, formal art training began at San Diego Mesa College 1983-86 (CA) while seeking a degree in Biology. He later earned a BA in Visual Arts with a minor is Sciences from the University of California, San Diego in 1987. In May of 2015 he earned a Master in Fine Arts in painting from the Savannah College of Art & Design. Throughout his career, he has collaborated as a freelancer with the creative side of various industries, mainly retail and hospitality, working closely with designers and architects in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and Spain. Such projects include a mural for Starbucks (Savannah, GA) and two murals for a Budweiser theme bar in the Bahamas commissioned by Holland America/Carnival Cruise Line. Stecca has exhibited with Jacob Karpio and Silvana Facchini Gallery, Diana Lowenstein Gallery, Hollywood Art Center, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and FIU's Frost Museum of Art among others. Stecca has also exhibited at Art Basel (Switzerland), Miami International Art Fair, Arts for a Better World and Overture Art Fairs. His work can be found in private, corporate and public permanent collections such as the Courtauld East Wing (London, UK), University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor (MA), Fort Smith Museum of Art (AR), Port Angeles Fine Arts Center (WA), Everett Community College (WA), Savannah College of Art and Design (GA), The Ballast Hotel (NC), The James Royal Hotel (Miami Beach) and Related Group (Trump Tower III in Sunny Isles, FL), etc. Stecca  resides and works in Savannah, GA and Miami (FL). He is a full time Foundations professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

 I observe, absorb and digest aspects of nature which eventually blend into my works' imaginary depths of space, line, color and composition. Inspired by early microscopic investigations as a child, extensive Lego's architectural experimentation and later study of science, I create my own, tangible yet nebulous environments, traveling free, as if weightless, through and about. The physical essence of my sculptures and paintings is rooted in the accumulation of units, multiple layers of paint and plaster and endless patience; parallel methodologies and shared inspiration allow them to coexist and evolve as one. The cadence of a repetitious sculptural process that utilizes thousands of wooden clothespins, connected by a wire sewing process, is mirrored in my multi-layered paintings. The latter requiring the collection and application of organic matter onto the plaster as well as a variety of natural or man made media. Fastidious to most, I achieve an enjoyable meditative like state during these stubbornly repetitive art making sessions, forgetting about time or the need to eat. All together, my work forms penetrable spaces framed by paintings of imaginary journeys. They are tactile and multidimensional experiences which from the start, endured a procedural nomadic growth in all directions. Inspired by casual explorations at the edge of the Everglades, my childhood in the tropics and many travels, these works now exist in their own plausible and fantastic dimension.