ROBERTO CARDINALE | "San Francisco de Assis," 2025. Painted New Mexico white pine, 19 H x 11.5 W x 15.5 D in (48.3 x 29.2 x 39.4 cm), drawer collage by PJ Cardinale, photo courtesy the artist
"We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us."
—Winston Churchill
Structures That Shape Us brings together eleven meticulously researched sculptures inspired by churches across the American Southwest, the East Coast, and Europe, alongside working drawings by artist and former Benedictine monk Roberto Cardinale.
Drawing inspiration from the Spanish architecture of the American Southwest, Cardinale considers how regional culture, imperial power, Indigenous building traditions, and European building practices converge to create the complex history that defines our current built environment. His sculptures invite us to consider buildings not only as monuments but also living records of belief, cultural exchange, and conflict.
Rooted in both artistic practice and spiritual inquiry, Cardinale’s work reflects on the human impulse to connect with something larger than ourselves. Structures That Shape Us asks how the places we inherit shape our collective memory, our sense of identity, and the stories we tell.
