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Culmination
Home Field Play in collaboration with Alberto Aguilar
Graft II
Memorial
The Franklin - LIVING By Example
A year to remember
Rhythm Nation
Graft II (Fachada de Edificio)
One Vision: Hollywood Soldiers
The Franklin
Contents

Edra Soto

San Juan, P.R.

1971

Biographical information

Painter and video artist. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico and in 1995 received the Alfonso Arana’s scholarship to study and work at the Studio of the artist in Paris and to travel around Europe during one year. During 1997 she continued her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is distinguished by its great expressive power and the creation of seductive and fantastic scenarios where color is the protagonist. 

Contents

Artworks

A year to remember

A year to remember

Date:

2004

Dimensions:

5' x 4 1/2'

Category:

Installation

Medium:

Flag printed with ink

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Culmination

Culmination

Date:

2003

Dimensions:

11" x 14"

Category:

Photography

Medium:

Photography

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Memorial

Memorial

Date:

2004

Dimensions:

6" x 4"

Category:

Photography

Medium:

Photography

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

One Vision: Hollywood Soldiers

One Vision: Hollywood Soldiers

Date:

2003

Dimensions:

10" x 8"

Category:

Photography

Medium:

Still images of War films produced in Hollywood

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Rhythm Nation

Rhythm Nation

Date:

2004

Dimensions:

30 minutes

Category:

Video

Medium:

Digital video

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico

Graft II

Graft II

Date:

2013

Dimensions:

Variables

Category:

Installation

Medium:

Site-specific intervention with wood screens at Hyde Park Art Center library and adjacent office space

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

The Franklin - LIVING By Example

The Franklin - LIVING By Example

Date:

2012

Dimensions:

12' x 12' x 8'

Category:

Installation

Medium:

Wood structure inside exhibition space

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Graft II (Fachada de Edificio)

Graft II (Building facade)

Date:

2013

Dimensions:

Variables

Category:

Installation

Medium:

Site-specific intervention with wood screens at Hyde Park Art Center library and adjacent office space

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

The Franklin

The Franklin

Date:

2012

Dimensions:

12' x 12' x 8'

Category:

Installation

Medium:

Outdoors wood structure

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Home Field Play in collaboration with Alberto Aguilar

Home Field Play in collaboration with Alberto Aguilar

Date:

2013

Dimensions:

37" x 48" x 26"

Category:

Installation

Medium:

Wooden table converted into a Ping-Pong table and Plexiglas screen

Genre:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Collection:

Artist statement

In my work I seek to provide an engaging, participatory space that erases boundaries between the audience, the artist, and the work of art. In pursuing this goal over the last decade, I have made use of a variety of exhibition formats. Immersive installations and site-specific work have facilitated my efforts at public engagement, producing worlds comprised of both traditional and unusual art objects. I tend to draw upon memories of my childhood in Puerto Rico and my religious upbringing for inspiration, making use of parallels between the symmetry of ecclesiastical architecture and the symmetry of sound stages on televised variety shows popular during the 1970s and ‘80s. I attempt to recreate memories in environments of pastiche that to me seem intimately familiar, while hoping to invite viewers to interact with spaces that for them inevitably contain strange and uncanny elements.
Edra Soto, 2014 

Training

Education 

2000

  • Master of Fine Arts. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York, United States

1998

  • Bachelor of Fina Arts. Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

1997

  • Post-Secondary Education Certificate. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

Professional Experience

2014

  • Lecturer. Saint Xavier University, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2013

  • Lecturer. Jane Addams Hull-House, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2011

  • Lecturer. Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2010

  • Lecturer. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, United States

2009

  • Lecturer. Harold Washington College, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2006

  • Art Professor. Noble Street Charter High School, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Artistic Design for Chicago Band’s t-shirt, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2005

  • Mural Project. Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2004

  • Curator. The Crappiest  Show,  Quimby’s Book Store, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Artistic Design for CD. The Rite of Spring, The Butcherchop Quartet, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2002-2005

  • Art Professor. Kelvyn Park High School, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2002

  • Photography and illustration for Iron Night.  NAD Navillus, JagJaguwar, Chicago, Illinois, United States

1999

  • Curator. Glam Salon, Student Union Gallery, SAIC, Chicago, Illinois, United States

Exhibitions

Solo Shows

2014

  • TBD, Lloyd Dobler Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Excess of Joy, Seerveld Gallery, Trinity College, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2013

  • Graft, Terrain, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Wake Up!, Medicine Cabinet, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2012

  • The Wedding Cake Project, New Capital, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • LIVING by Example, NIU Fine Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2010

  • Homily, Ebersmoore, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2009

  • The Chacon-Soto Show, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Forever Vegetal, Roots and Culture, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Lesson Plan, Second Bedroom Projects, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2005

  • A Year in Review (gallery project) and Landfill (complementary public project), At The Edge series, Gallery 400, UIC, Chicago, Illinois, United States

  • Rhythm Nation, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Group Shows

2014

  • TBD, The Bike Rook, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Dock6 Design & Art Series, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • HEAD, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Renaissance re-visited, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Living Arrangement, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

2013

  • Home Bodies,Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Front & Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • et aliae, Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • NOW SEE HEAR, Believe Inn, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Point of Departure, The Arcade, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2012

  • Interconexiones: Lecturas curatoriales de la Colección del MAPR, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Your Face is a Landscape, Field Projects, New York, United States
  • Afterimage, The Roger Brown Study Collection, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Afterimage, Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • A Personal Dinner Invitation, ShOPRoots & Culture, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Blaque Lyte Show, ADA Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Afrolatinos, Museo de Arte de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico
  • Program Suffer Abstain Deprogram, Harold Washington College, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Dock6 Design & Art Series, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2011

  • Archival Impulse, Gallery 400 UIC, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • CoLaboratory, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Heads and Poles, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • An Exchange with Sol LeWitt, Cabinet Magazine, New York, United States

2010

  • Six Rooms, Longman & Eagle and Harold Arts, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Office Romance!,Threewalls, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2009

  • Artists Run Chicago with Second Bedroom, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Puerto Rico: Geografia humana, fotografias y video del sigloXXI,  Art Museum of the Americas, The Smithsonian Latino Center, Washington DC, United States; Museo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2006

  • War impressions, Zverev Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
  • Lo Romántico,Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Six Flags: Polvo Est. 1996, Commerce Street Artist Warehouse, Houston, Texas, United States
  • Rewind…Rewind…Video –arte puertorriqueño, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Nova Art Fair, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Video Laundrey, Mess Hall, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • A Public Space, Daley Plaza, Daley Plaza, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2005

  • Research, NIU Museum, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • The Fourth Floor, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Lies that Bill Gates told me: Exploring the Digital Divide, VUSpace, Victoria University, Australia
  • City Selections, Tourism Center, Chicago; Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Temporary Allegiances, UIC Gallery 400, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2004

  • Don’t Call it Performance, Museo del Barrio, New  York, United States

Awards, distinctions and achievements

2014

  • Residency. Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, 3Arts Fellow, Captiva, Florida, United States

2013

  • Grant. DCASE Individual Artists Program Grant, Chicago, Illinois, Estados Unidos

2011

  • Residency. Beta-Local, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2004

  • Residency. M&M Proyectos, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2001-2003

  • Grant. Assistance to the Arts Community Scholarship Program. Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

2000

  • Scholarship.  Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture with the collaboration of The School of the Art institute of Chicago, Skowhegan, Maine, United States

1995

  • Alfonso Arana Annual Scholarship. Fundación Alfonso Arana, Paris, France 

Collections

  • Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico    
  • Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico 

Bibliography

Newspapers

“Innovador espacio en el MAPR”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 2005.


Trelles Hernández, Carmen. «En continuo movimiento” . Primera Hora (San Juan, PR), 2005.


Luo, Jean. “UIC gallery strives to give artists free-range for exhibits”. The Daily Northwestern (Illinois, EU), enero 2005.


Pérez Ruiz, José A. “La Estética Vanguardista de Edra Soto”, El Vocero (San Juan, PR), agosto 2004.

Magazines

Fuentes, Elvis. “Edra Soto at MAPR”, Arte Al Día (Miami, EU), 2005.


Vélez, Pedro. “The New Scenesters”, Artnet (Nueva York, EU), 2005.


Vrachopoulos, Thalia. “San Juan: Collectors, Collections and the Art Market” , YArts (Nueva York, EU), marzo 2005.


”La Pintadera”, Art Premium, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, enero –febrero 2005.


Hannum, Terence. “Edra Soto Documentation 2004: A Year in Review», Panel-House (Illinois, EU), enero 2005.


Vélez, Pedro. “Edra Soto at Dogmatic”, Ten By Ten Magazine (Illinois, EU), mayo 2002.


Volpe, Jessica. “Art Picks…” UR Chicago”, UR Chicago (Illinois, EU), diciembre 2001.

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