Gallery 16 is pleased to announce two concurrent solo exhibitions with artists Rose D’Amato and Jeffrey Sincich. Both artists have backgrounds in sign painting and share a deep admiration for the often-overlooked handmade characteristics of storefronts and street signs. In their studio practices, D’Amato and Sincich are both drawn to the preservation and veneration of the traditions of handmade vernacular signage. These traditions and use of text are evident in the mentality of California artists like Ed Ruscha. Here in the Bay Area, it was famously linked to artists including Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee, who Gallery 16 worked with in the 1990s. For D’Amato and Sincich, their work is a practice of social observation, craftsmanship, and storytelling.

Rose D’Amato, a 2024 SFMOMA SECA Art Award recipient, is a second-generation sign painter. Her paintings incorporate elements of airbrush, abstraction, pinstriping, and hand lettering in an intoxicating blend. D’Amato writes, “I’ve been thinking a lot about how the traditions of sign painting and pinstriping could be viewed as inherited languages. I am making an effort to localize the references I use in a way that allows me to honor the present. Painting this personal archive of signs feels like an act of devotion, and although ‘sign-painting’ is often referred to as a dying or dead profession, its representation within my community of friends is very alive.” The intersection of past and present is on view in D’Amato’s Schrumpf flowers, an elegy to an extraordinary neon sign from a long-gone florist that graced Valencia Street for many decades.

Jeffrey Sincich’s work is made from sewn fabric and integrates traditions of quilting, sign painting, and advertising in his irresistible work. “I have explored how signage interacts with the built environment. I am drawn into the glow of a neon sign coming from under an awning and the shadows that decorative window bars cast onto the sidewalk. I love seeing the layers of paint applied to a fading, painted sign, expertly or not. I am enamored with how words that are used to get a message across in a quick, straightforward way often sound like mini poems: Milk Beer, Sales and Service, We sell bag/cup of ice. I use quilted fabric to translate these messages and images in an effort to memorialize them. I aim to give them a sense of personal history, like a quilt that has been passed down. I find and use discarded materials from around the city to explore their function and to give my work a sense of place".

Rose D’Amato (b. 1991, Whittier, CA) is a pinstriper and painter living and working in San Francisco, CA. As a second generation sign maker, she is drawn to decorative folk arts, hand-lettering, and the iconic imagery tied to her upbringing and family history of pinstriping and lettering. She is motivated by her intention to learn and implement techniques of handmade modes of production and by doing so explore her artistic lineage. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute and received a BFA in painting in 2016, and afterwards apprenticed and worked at New Bohemia Signs. D’Amato continues to work independently as a painter and has been the Adjunct Professor of Hand lettering at CCA since 2019. Currently she is the Headlands Center for the Arts Tournesol Awardee for 2023-2024 and an SFMOMA 2024 SECA awardee. Their work has been featured in publications including Juxtapoz magazine and Anna magazine Japan. Rose is working towards upcoming exhibitions at BAMPFA, SFMOMA, UC Santa Barbara, Charlie James Gallery, and House of Seiko.

Jeffrey Sincich (b. 1990, Belleair, FL) is an artist living and working in San Francisco, CA. After studying ceramics in school, Jeffrey learned the trade of sign painting and continued full time for seven years. His love of hand painted signage, typography, and architecture later merged with his fascination with handmade quilts where he developed a process of quilting lettering and illustrations. He combines these quilted elements with neon signage, wood, and salvaged window grates and building materials to highlight the overlooked and underappreciated everyday signs and objects that help the city function day to day. Jeffrey earned his BFA from the University of Florida in 2012. His work has been exhibited domestically and internationally in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Miami, Portland, OR, Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France, at venues including the de Young Museum in San Francisco and Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. He has been featured in publications including Juxtapoz magazine and Popeye magazine.