LOS ANGELES – Jay Belloli (1944-2021), curator, artist and writer passed away at the age of 76 on Friday, May 21, in Pasadena, Calif.

Belloli grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., the only child of Joseph and Florence Belloli. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Studio Art in 1966 and received his MA in the History of Art from the University of California at Berkeley in 1970.

Belloli was a scholar of Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) and vice president of the Falkenstein Foundation. He organized a monograph on Falkenstein in 2012. In 2016, he curated the retrospective exhibition, “Claire Falkenstein: Beyond Sculpture” at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, an exhibit that would travel to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Calif., and was accompanied by a catalog with new scholarship.

Belloli was a member of the Pasadena arts community for more than 30 years. From 1990 to 2010, he was director of gallery programs at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, where he organized more than 25 exhibitions. From 1989 to 2004, he served as art consultant to the Jonathan Club and Jonathan Art Foundation in Los Angeles, which specializes in California Impressionists.

In addition to his role on the board of the Falkenstein Foundation, he was president of the board of trustees of Southwest Chamber Music and chair of the Giving Committee for the Vestry of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

His experience as a curator and museum director placed him in roles in several institutions across the United States, including The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Mich.; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Calif.; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn.; and the former Baxter Art Gallery at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. Belloli organized or worked on major exhibitions, commissions and temporary installations with artists, including Larry Bell, Daniel Buren, Dan Flavin, Nancy Graves, Tim Hawkinson, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McLaughlin, Yoko Ono and Robert Rauschenberg. From 2016 to 2017, Belloli was interim director of the Pasadena Museum of California Art

Belloli is survived by his step-daughter, Sabina E. Aran-Dinsmoor and his grandson, William Dinsmoor.

A memorial service has not yet been announced.