All posts tagged: edra soto

Perto de Lá <> Close to There: TANTO and Edra Soto in Conversation

Published by Marina Resende Santos

Note: Portuguese sections of this interview are in bold, and the English sections are un-bolded. Daniel Sabóia, Patricia Almeida and Fabio Steque are the members of TANTO Criações Compartilhadas, a collective art and design practice in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The three artists have degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning at the Universidade Federal da Bahia. TANTO’s projects include installations and sculptural objects, designed spaces for creative action, and graphic design, often in collaboration with other artists, publishers and organizers. Edra Soto is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and curator born in Puerto Rico and based in Chicago. She works between social practice, immersive installations and architectural interventions, employing materials and practices from post-colonial visual cultures to address issues of colonization, cultural identity, and relationships between communities. Edra Soto is also co-director of the outdoor project space THE FRANKLIN, in her backyard in Garfield Park. Daniel Sabóia and Patricia Almeida, from TANTO, and Edra Soto are part of “Close to There Perto de Lá”, an artist exchange program between Salvador, Brazil and Chicago organized by Comfort Station …

Collected Histories: “Open 24 Hours” by Edra Soto

Published by Christina Nafziger

Edra Soto has transformed the Commons at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) with her work Open 24 Hours into a beautiful place filled with remnants of histories that gives birth to transcultural discourse and new meaning. Fittingly, Soto’s culturally charged work is the inaugural project for this new “civically engaged space” at the MCA. As I walk in to the Commons to attend Edra Soto’s artist talk, there are installations of intricately designed, custom-made display structures that stand like pillars, shelf after shelf holding up empty bottles of all different shapes and sizes; the translucence of the greens and browns of the bottles providing a striking contrast to the opaque white of the shells that adorn their surfaces. Edra Soto informs the audience that she collected these bottles, and continues to do so, in her neighborhood of East Garfield Park. She picks them up, washes them, removes their labels—she cares about these bottles as objects. She sees something in them. They are not pieces of trash to be discarded and forgotten, they are pieces …

Softness as Subversion

Published by Annette LePique

The Franklin’s My Feet Have Lost Memory of Softness utilizes space and place to explore the concept of softness, questioning and expanding the audience’s pre-existing relationships with change, time, and the hierarchies of an art gallery. Curated by Ionit Behar, the crux of the installation is the representation of softness as a characteristic of mutability and change. Within the realm of an art installation, change can be indicative of transition and fluctuation in a viewer’s experience and subsequent understanding of a work. This conception of softness is compounded by the nature of the Franklin as a site, a quality described by the show’s written materials as an “unconventional and unofficial presence.” Such presence is derived from the fact that the Franklin is an artist-run site within Edra Soto and Dan Sullivan’s East Garfield Park home and yard. These blurred boundaries between the communal and the domestic are in and of themselves a softness, one that speaks towards an artist community formed from transition. When entering the Franklin’s outdoor space one is immediately confronted by Jean …

Weekly Picks March 17-23

Published by Sixty Inches From Center

While a new Sixty Inches from Center is in the making, please enjoy our weekly calendar, a list of visual art related events happening in Chicago. Events are chosen based on the information that is put in front of us. If you would like to take advantage of having your event listed on our website please send a press release to reuben.westmaas@sixtyinchesfromcenter.org   MONDAY || March 17 Acquiescings + Hauntings at Poonie’s Cabaret 7:30pm – 9:00pm Links Hall 3111 N Western Ave Chicago, IL 60618 $5 A coalition of dancers, musicians, and visual artists join Poonie’s Cabaret for a thoughtful exploration of loss and mourning. Loss isn’t just an absence–it’s a burden, something those left behind carry with them. And it it doesn’t have to be the loss of a person. When something deeply cherished disappears, it creates a negative space to be navigated. It’s that negative space that inspires this performance, which stars such performers as Mister Junior, a fixture of the city’s boylesque scene, and hip hop artist Terri “Lyric” Green, who won the 2013 Unsigned Only …

Unleash the lease. Torluemke and Soto

Published by Nicolette Caldwell

Joshua Ginsberg owner and founder of Chicago Art Leasing LLC discussed with me why he thinks leasing art is a great way to support artists aside from selling artwork outright, “it takes the hassle out of the art buying process because the 300+ artists on our roster gives an eclectic mix of art that you won’t always find in most commercial galleries and we offer a varied price range depending on the clients needs ,” says Ginsberg. Artwork by Josh Garrett, Shane Swank, Beatriz Ledezma, and Jori Foreman are only four examples of the 300+ artists on Chicago Art Leasing’s roster. Read the entire interview transcribed when the SIFC Archive launches on October 30th, 2010. Tom Torluemke brings a whole new meaning to “Exhibition”, really. Check out the amazingly prolific showcase of Torluemke’s work entitled, “The Exhibitionist” at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Stay tuned for the audio excerpt of our discussion when we fully launch in October. The opening of Homily at the ebersmoore space not only features solo work by Edra Soto but you will also find work by Carmen …