Structures That Shape Us
The church form speaks to Roberto’s love of ecclesiastical architecture and springs from his Benedictine monastic background and world travels. The churches, built of pine and richly painted, are about 12" wide and 16" high and vary in length. While he specializes in the churches, missions and synagogues of New Mexico, beginning in 1985, he has done nearly 1000 pieces inspired by buildings of faith from around the world. He continues working today.
Structures That Shape Us gathers fourteen works: eleven sculptures and three of the working drawings from which they were built. Alongside the New Mexico missions and chapels are buildings from farther afield — Richard Meier’s Jubilee Church in Rome, Marcel Breuer’s former Whitney Museum on Madison Avenue, and the Pueblo, Colorado parish where the artist’s parents were married in 1935. Seven of the sculptures open to a drawer or interior collage by PJ Cardinale, his wife and collaborator since 1966.
Born in 1939 in Pueblo, CO, Bob has a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy earned while a Benedictine monk, an MA in Art from the University of Northern Colorado, and a Doctorate in Art Education from Arizona State University. He has been a professor at the University of Northern Colorado (1968-69), The Ohio State University (1970-1974), University of Arizona (1974-1981), and Boston University (where he was Director and professor of the Program in Artisanry, 1981-1985). He has been president of the San Antonio Art Institute (1985-1990) and President of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation (1990-1992). In 2009, he was named Master of the Southwest by Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine. He and PJ, his wife (married 1966), a collage artist, have lived in Santa Fe, NM since 1990.
Select Permanent Collections
The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM
The Harwood Museum of Art, University of New Mexico, Taos, NM
The Sangre de Cristo Center for the Arts, Pueblo, CO
The Billy Graham Museum of Art, Wheaton, IL
The Benedictine University Museum of Art, Lisle, IL
11 works
Santa Fe, NM, built 1692 & 1914
Rosario Chapel, at the back of Rosario Cemetery in Santa Fe, stands on the traditional site of Don Diego de Vargas’s 1692 camp, where he is said to have vowed to honor the Virgin Mary (La Conquistadora) if he could retake the city after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. The original sanctuary was later replaced by the present adobe chapel, begun in 1807 and enlarged in 1914.
$1,800
Las Vegas, NM, built 1884
The first synagogue in New Mexico, despite extensive remodeling over the years, still stands today. Originally, the structure was relocated from its initial site and placed on the campus of Highlands University, where it served as a Catholic Newman Center for a period of time. Later, the building was reacquired by the Jewish community. It now continues to function as an active synagogue, maintaining its important role as a center for Jewish worship and community life.
$2,800
Ranchos de Taos, NM, built c. 1810
Located about three miles outside of Taos, New Mexico, this massive adobe structure was completed around 1810. The church has been in continuous use since it was completed. The apse (back of the church) with its massive stone and adobe buttresses is one of the most popular images of the Southwest and has been painted and photographed by such greats as Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams.
It is understandable why the apse of this mission church has been so often photographed and painted: it proclaims geometric satisfaction mixed with naive forthrightness.
— G. E. Kidder Smith
$3,000
Santa Fe, NM, built 1940
Cristo Rey Church was designed by John Gaw Meem in the Pueblo Revival style, drawing inspiration from many of New Mexico’s historic Spanish missions. Like its antecedents, the church is built from adobe, though it is supported by a hidden steel frame rather than relying completely on traditional building techniques. Architecture critic Chris Wilson described the building as “the last, great adobe mission.” The facade is asymmetrical, with two battered towers of different heights separated by a recessed balcony above the main entrance.
$2,800
El Paso, TX, built 1682
The Ysleta Mission, located in the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo within the municipality of El Paso, Texas, is recognized as the oldest continuously operated parish in the State of Texas. I have chosen to leave this church sculpture unfinished to allow the viewer to see how the piece evolved in the making process.
$2,400
Tucson, AZ, built c. 1783
Mission San Xavier del Bac, founded in the late 17th century and later constructed in its present form by Tohono O’odham artisans, is known as the “White Dove of the Desert.”
Not for Sale · Commissions welcome
Rio Chiquito, near Taos, NM, built 1837
The Talpa Chapel near Taos, built in the early 1800s by the Martinez, Tafoya, and Duran families, rises from sunbaked adobe, simple and enduring. Thick walls, rough-hewn beams, and a modest bell tower mark generations of care and faith. In the base, a small drawer holds a collage of Catholic devotional objects—rosaries, medals, and faded prayer cards—kept through centuries. As a sculptor, I work on the textures and shadows, trying to capture both the history and the steadfast devotion etched into every surface.
$2,800
New York, NY, built 1966
Originally the Whitney Museum of American Art, at 75th Street and Madison Avenue. Designed by architect Marcel Breuer, the former Whitney Museum of American Art stands as a landmark of modernist architecture. Its bold, inverted-ziggurat form projects outward over Madison Avenue, creating a sculptural presence that both anchors and challenges its urban setting. Breuer’s design conveys a sense of weight and permanence, while the asymmetrical window openings are set like jewels on the exterior walls. The building remains one of Breuer’s most influential works, exemplifying his commitment to material honesty, human scale, and expressive structural form.
$6,000
after the Passion of Christ by Hans Memling, 1470
The painting shows Christ being led out of the medieval city gate and up the hill to his Crucifixion. The painting is now in Turin, Italy.
$1,800
Rome, Italy, built 2000
Chiesa di Dio Padre Misericordioso — the Church of God the Merciful Father — by Richard Meier, architect. Striving to capture the emotion and history that is imbued in the structure itself, this piece uses the extraordinary, overlapping façade, evoking the cosmic geometry of the Renaissance. Upon a closer look, soft mixtures of color and texture give the work a light and delicate appearance, with 22K gold leaf to emphasize selected details. This eye-catching sculpture sits attached to a swivel platform, allowing viewing from every angle. All expertly and exquisitely honoring scale and proportion of the exterior and interior. Simple yet profound, the piece is finished with a drawer in the base. Cardinale’s wife PJ, since 1966, composes a mixed-media collage paying homage to the church, objects of devotion of the Roman Catholic faith, and the architect himself.
$6,000
Pueblo, CO, built 1901
The church is in the Romanesque Revival style and was originally part of the National Ethnic Parish movement for the Italian Catholic immigrants in the Grove area of Pueblo. The founding priest was the Jesuit Father Salvatore Giglio. My parents, Salvatore Cardinale and Agnes Costanza, whose parents were both Sicilian immigrants, were married in the church in 1935. This sculpture is a tribute to my parents and includes a photo of their three sons, of which I am the middle one.
Not for Sale · Commissions welcome
Pencil and ink on grid paper
