Charles Arnoldi’s paintings and sculptural constructions explore the relationships between color, form, material, and space. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1946, Charles moved to California at eighteen and briefly attended several art schools before choosing to develop his practice independently. Emerging within the Los Angeles art scene of the early 1970s, he first gained recognition for wall-based constructions made from branches before expanding into plywood assemblages, printmaking, and large-scale abstraction. Through bold geometry, lyrical line, and an instinctive approach to material, Charles creates works that can feel simultaneously forceful, elegant, and joyful.

“The only way you retire as an artist is you die.”

In his Venice studio, Charles approaches each work as a new visual and material problem. Across more than five decades, he has worked with branches, cut and chainsawed plywood, assembled canvases, charcoal, metal, plaster, and paint. Rather than treating painting and sculpture as separate disciplines, he allows physical construction and color to carry equal weight.

His process moves between intuition and structure. Hard-edged shapes collide, overlap, and shift across tactile surfaces, while visible brushwork prevents geometry from becoming rigid or impersonal. This continual experimentation reflects Charles’s independent path as an artist and his enduring interest in discovering how an object can occupy the space between painting, relief, and sculpture.

“In abstract painting an artist invents a problem and solves it.”

In Venice (2026), Charles arranges irregular geometric forms across a densely worked field of gray, cream, and earth tones. Muted blue, rust, brown, and black shapes overlap and interrupt one another, while thick, directional brushwork gives each plane a distinct physical presence.

Rather than depicting Venice literally, the painting translates a sense of place into structure, rhythm, and material. Its shifting forms suggest fragments in motion—architectural, geological, or entirely abstract—demonstrating how Charles uses color and geometry to create tension, balance, and unexpected visual pleasure.

Charles continues to investigate the possibilities of abstraction through painting, sculptural construction, and material experimentation. Following On Matter, Sabbatikal’s 2026 presentation pairing his work with that of Woods Davy, the artists’ dialogue around structure, balance, and physical material will continue in a 2027 exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum.

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