Jeffrey Sincich: 99¢ Plus & More

Charlie James Gallery is pleased to present 99¢ Plus & More, an exhibition of new works by San Francisco-based artist Jeffrey Sincich. Sincich draws inspiration from the built landscape: signs, murals, and advertisements are transformed into idiosyncratic quilted compositions that emphasize the handmade quality of much of the urban landscape. The exhibition takes as its starting point the kinds of everyday shops that dot city neighborhoods: corner stores and tire shops, laundromats and bars. Together these places fulfill the needs of the neighborhood, providing a kind of fourth space where the communal and personal meet. Sincich captures all of this in meticulously pieced and quilted works, stretched and finished with artist’s frames. 

Sincich’s interest in legacy materials was born in the garage sales he would frequent with his family throughout his childhood. Always drawn to the specificity of handmade items and interested in the intersection between functional items and art objects, Sincich eventually became a professional sign painter and pursued this career for almost a decade. Quilting fits naturally into this paradigm, carrying a storied history of craft and communication not dissimilar to handmade signage. Traditionally quilts were cherished objects that were passed down through the generations; Sincich brings this history to the work by using quilting as a medium for his compositions.  

The exhibition’s largest work plays with a mural-sized appliance advertisement. Four common kitchen and laundry appliances are lined up on a multi-hued brown background, arrayed across a surface that feels peeled from the side of a building, its specific zagging shape reminiscent of architecture. Sincich elevates the humble appliance as functional sculpture, works of art that keep us fed and clothed. Across the gallery, a nearly life-size stack of tires brings to mind the sculptural installations built from car parts often found at local repair shops. Here and elsewhere, Sincich celebrates the everyday and the overlooked, asking the viewer to consider the humble artistry of an urban landscape that too often disappears under the homogenizing force of gentrification. 

The images in Sincich’s works are simplified, distilled down to their essence. As with sign painting, these works are meant to be immediately legible, yet reveal themselves in details that reward close looking. Subtle shading adds depth, while irregularly shaped canvases provide a sense of volume to the compositions. Quilted forms are built using only straight lines, giving the resulting images a sort of Cubist visual instability, as if Stuart Davis had turned his eye to the bodega. Sincich brings life to everyday objects, creating a distinct sense of place that he enhances through installation: many works hang in the gallery in a way that reflects where they might be found in the real world – a parking sign high up on a wall, a lit clock and liquor advert above a doorframe.

The back room of the exhibition is transformed from a white wall gallery into a more domestic space, with wood paneled walls and a buzzing glow from the show’s titular work, 99¢ Plus & More beckoning the viewer in with crisp neon light. Like quilting, neon is old technology, one that often signifies warmth and nostalgia. The gallery is filled with smaller works depicting items that might be found at the discount store – everything from shirts to shelf-stable food to knockoff “Dolce + Cabbana” perfume. In the downstairs gallery, Sincich takes on the grander scale of the strip mall marquee and roadside billboard signage, continuing his investigations of a particularly California visual vernacular with characteristic humor and insight.