Edra Soto. Photo by Steph Murray.
Edra Soto is a Puerto-Rican born artist, curator, educator, and co-director of the outdoor project space, The Franklin. Growing up in Puerto Rico, and now immersed in her Chicago community, Soto’s work has evolved to raise questions about constructed social orders, diasporic identity, and the legacy of colonialism.
Soto has exhibited extensively at venues including Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, IL, ICA San Diego, CA and the Whitney Museum of American Art NY. She has been awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, the Joyce Foundation Award, the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, the 3Arts Next Level Fellowship, the inaugural Foundwork Prize, the Ree Kaneko Award and the US LatinX Art Forum Fellowship among others. Soto traveled and exhibited in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as part of the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. She has attended residency programs at Skowhegan, ME, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, FL, Headlands, NY, Project Row Houses, TX and Art Omi, NY, among others. Recent presentations include the Chicago Architecture Biennial, O’Hare’s International Airport T5 Expansion Project and the commission of "Graft" from Public Art Fund at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park. Soto holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico.
Edra Soto walking her dogs and collecting liquor bottles in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago.
Found liquor bottles in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL.
Found bottles in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL.
Cleaning liquor bottles found in East Garfield Park.
Liquor bottles collected in East Garfield Park, after they have been cleaned.
Liquor bottles from the artist's neighborhood collected, cleaned, and documented.
Installation View of OPEN 24 HOURS risograph prints.
Edra Soto
1-13-17: Hennessy, Rémy Martin, D’Ussé, Jose Cuervo, Patron, Bud Ice, Seagrams, Paul Masson, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
Edra Soto
3-27-17: New Amsterdam, Wild Irish Rose, VS, Patron, Mickey’s Steel Reserve, Rémy Martin, Member’s Mark, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
Edra Soto
1-1-17: UV Vodka, Hennessy, Patron, 1800 Reposado, Miller, Colt 45, New Amsterdam, Paul Masson, Boone’s, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
Edra Soto
1-6-17: Budweiser, Hennessy, Rémy Martin, New Amsterdam, Patron, Seagrams, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
Edra Soto
1-16-17: Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Patron, Seagrams escape, Bud Ice, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
Edra Soto
1-7-17: Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Avion, Budweiser, Miller, New Amsterdam, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
Edra Soto
3-23-17: Camo, Miller, UV, Rémy Martin 1738, Mickey’s, Bud Light lime, Heineken light, Hennessy, 2017
Risograph on paper
11 x 14 in
“Cognac’s relationship with African American consumers started later, when black soldiers stationed in southwest France were introduced to it during both world wars. The connection between cognac producers and black consumers was likely bolstered by the arrival of black artists and musicians like Josephine Baker, who filled Paris clubs with jazz and blues during the interwar years … France appreciated these distinctive art forms before the U.S. did, continuing a French tradition dating back to Alexis de Tocqueville of understanding aspects of American culture better than Americans did. For African Americans, the elegant cognac of a country that celebrated their culture instead of marginalizing it must have tasted sweet … During the 1990s, cognac sales were slow, and the industry was battling an image populated by fusty geriatrics. Then references to cognac began surfacing in rap lyrics, a phenomenon that peaked in 2001 with Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy’s hit “Pass the Courvoisier,” causing sales of the brand to jump 30 percent. During the next five years, other rappers teamed up with brands, and increased overall sales of cognac in the U.S. by a similar percentage, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.”
Reid Mitenbuler, author of Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey—
"Motivated by seeing the excessive amounts of litter and detritus in my neighborhood, I created the project Open 24 Hours. The project's name refers to the accumulation of litter visible to everyone, at all times, in East Garfield Park, a historic African American neighborhood in Chicago. I have lived in my beloved neighborhood with my husband for more than 10 years. The above quote for me connects my observations to a long history of cultural marginalization, exchange, and revival that embraces what could have been erased.
Every morning, while walking my dogs, I see all types of trash and refuse on the ground. The glass liquor bottles glimmer and are intact, as if someone carefully placed them on the ground. These bottles are undeniably beautiful. I’ve decided to collect only liquor bottles that I could clean and strip of their brand labels. As evidence of my collecting, I keep a record that states the date and brands of the bottles I find. After washing them, I group them together according to the date that they were found and later photograph them against a white backdrop.
Placing the bottles in a still-life format allows me to provide an accessible entrance that is recognizable to viewers. Also, by removing the brand labels from the bottles, it obscures the type of liquor that the bottle held and deters viewers from presuming a particular demographic. My impulse is to be civic-minded. Recording my process is an intimate insight of my everyday reality and those of my neighbors. Finding a significant historical connection between cognac -- the predominant type of liquor bottles I find in East Garfield Park, with my African American neighbors -- evokes a sense of empathy for the consumption of these bottles as complex forms of pleasure, interconnections, and escape from socio-economic oppression."
Edra Soto—
Former iterations of Open 24 Hours:
Open 24 Hours | Albright-Knox Northland
Open 24 Hours | Chicago Athletic Association
Open 24 Hours | Headlands Project Space
The Puerto Rico-born, Chicago-based artist’s new Public Art Fund project brings the domestic architecture of her childhood home to Central Park. In her series Graft, Edra Soto has been mining visual iconography from her upbringing in Puerto Rico, namely the wrought iron fences (rejas) and breeze blocks (quiebrasoles) that are ubiquitous in the island’s residential architecture and were prominent features of Soto’s childhood home.
Graft on view September 5, 2024 - August 24, 2025
Edra Soto explores the relationship between our private, interior lives and shared public history and culture. Graft is the latest in an ongoing series of installations based on rejas, wrought iron screens frequently seen outside homes in Puerto Rico. Rejas often feature repeating geometric motifs that can be traced to West Africa’s Yoruba symbol systems, in contrast to the Spanish architecture celebrated in official Puerto Rican tourism. Graft investigates how Puerto Rican cultural memory often masks the Black heritage of the island as folklore.
Last year, Edra Soto had just about the best year an artist can have: in addition to solo shows at Engage Projects, Cleve Carney Museum and Hyde Park Art Center, her work was shown at New York’s LatchKey Gallery and acquired by the Whitney Museum. The coming of a new year did little to slow her momentum: she’s capping off 2024 with a large-scale installation at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art and solo showcases at Portland, Maine’s ICA and Chicago’s own Comfort Station.
The Joyce Foundation today announced the recipients of the 2024 Joyce Awards, marking the 20th anniversary of the foundation's annual awards program supporting artists of color in the creation of new, community-centered works with organizational partners across the Great Lakes region. Expanding each grant from $75,000 to $100,000, this year marks the Awards' largest total amount given to date, with $500,000 in grants to support five projects. The 2024 awardees deeply engage communities through co-creation and collaboration across disciplines to explore diverse cultural identities, invigorate public spaces, and foster healing and connection.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce that Edra Soto has been awarded the 2024 PAD Founders Award for achievement in the field of public art. Public Art Dialogue (PAD) is an organization devoted to public art. Often manifested in representational form, Edra Soto’s work walks the line between visual arts, social practice, immersive installations, and architectural interventions. She aims to challenge the boundaries between audience, artist and the work itself, prompting viewers to reconsider the nature of urban space, cross-cultural dynamics, the legacy of colonialism, and personal responsibility. Soto’s upbringing and relationships with communities in Puerto Rico and the US informs her artistic practice.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is delighted to announce the acquisition of Edra Soto’s monumental sculptural installation, Let Love Win, by the esteemed Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Soto created Let Love Win in response to the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and as her personal stand in the social justice movement and Black Lives Matter. The work spans more than 20 feet and consists of over four hundred portraits of victims of police brutality that have been individually embossed into soft metal, resembling a contemporary version of a religious votive or milagro. Our sincere thanks to Elise Barclay, curator of the collection.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is pleased to announce Edra Soto as a 2024 recipient of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center 2024 Arts/Industry Residency program for their 50 year anniversary. Hundreds of artists have benefited from the celebrated Arts/Industry residency program since its beginning in 1974. Arts/Industry offers artists the time and space to focus on the creation of new work and a unique location for their studios. Artists-in-residence work at the Kohler Co. factory in the Pottery and/or Foundry. Participants are exposed to a body of technical knowledge that enables and encourages them to explore new ways of thinking and working.
Public Art Fund will debut Edra Soto’s new interactive metal and terrazzo sculptural works at Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park. The artist’s ongoing series, Graft, integrates architectural intervention and social practice to investigate the relationships between Puerto Rican cultural memory, its African and Black heritage, and the threads of colonial historical lineage in the United States.
Her first large-scale public art commission in New York City, Soto’s Public Art Fund project marks the next iteration of her Graft series. Soto will continue her practice of using rejas, patterned iron-wrought screens ubiquitous in post-war Puerto Rican architecture, to illustrate the complex relationship between historical memory and community involvement. A stand-alone steel lattice-work screen will stretch across Doris C. Freedman Plaza, accompanied by domino tables and chairs that invite audiences to sit down for a game, clarifying Soto’s call for a public forum.
3Arts, the Chicago-based nonprofit grantmaking organization, announced the recipients of its 3Arts Next Level Awards—$50,000 unrestricted cash awards given to past 3Arts awardees—during the festive 3Arts Awards Celebration held last night at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. While 3Arts has in the past awarded three Next Level grants, the roster this year was expanded to include two additional awards for teaching artists; at $50,000, this is the largest no-strings-attached cash award for teaching artists in the world. 2023 Next Level recipients are teaching artists Miguel “Kane One” Aguilar and Regin Igloria and visual artists Dianna Frid, Edra Soto, and Dorian Sylvain in recognition of their outstanding work in the arts and in neighborhoods across Chicago.
This is a Rehearsal–the title of CAB 5–explores how contemporary environmental, political, and economic issues are shared across national boundaries but are addressed differently around the world through art, architecture, infrastructure, and civic participation. CAB 5 builds on and expands Floating Museum’s ongoing work, including site-responsive art and design projects and public programs, to explore divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a mode for expanding how we frame the relationship between our environments and ourselves. Works will be on view from November 01, 2023–February 11, 2024.
Our country’s Latinx artists—creatives of Latin American or Caribbean descent who live and work in the US—have made significant and vital contributions to American culture. Yet these artists have lacked visibility and received little of the philanthropic or institutional support necessary to secure their place in the story of American art. Designed to address this systemic and longstanding lack of support, and now in its third year, the Latinx Artist Fellowship is awarding $50,000 each to a multigenerational cohort of 15 Latinx visual artists each year for an initial commitment of five years. Administered by the US Latinx Art Forum in collaboration with the New York Foundation for the Arts and supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation, this award is the first significant prize of its kind and celebrates the plurality and diversity of Latinx artists and aesthetics.
The US Latinx Art Forum (USLAF) today announced the newest cohort of the Latinx Artist Fellowship. In its third year, the fellowship annually recognizes 15 of the most compelling Latinx visual artists working in the United States today and aims to address a systemic lack of support, visibility, and patronage of Latinx visual artists—individuals of Latin American or Caribbean descent, born or long-living in the United States.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is proud to announce the Whitney Museum of American Art's acquisition of GRAFT, 2022, by Edra Soto. GRAFT was featured in the museum's landmark exhibition “no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria," organized by the DeMartini Family Senior Curator, Marcela Guerrero. The gallery wishes to thank the museum and everyone who made this acquisition possible.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is proud to announce Edra Soto's upcoming Lucas Artists Fellow Residency at the Montalvo Arts Center. The Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP) is a creative incubator and cultural producer dedicated to investing in artists and their work. We support visual artists, composers, writers, performers, scholars, and others from around the world to undertake critical investigations of contemporary issues, and to create and present new and experimental works.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is proud to announce that gallery artist Edra Soto has been awarded the Bemis Center's 2022 Ree Kaneko Award. This annual award is bestowed to artists that have participated in Bemis's exhibition or residency programs and is named in honor of Ree Kaneko, Bemis Center co-founder, first Executive Director, and Board Member Emerita.
The Bemis Center's Ree Kaneko Award was created to award $25,000 unrestricted, by nomination to an alum of the program to provide financial support to increase the capacity of an artists practice. There will be a conversation held with Edra Soto: March 9, 6–7pm
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to invite you to an exhibition walk-through and conversation between artist Edra Soto and curator Joey Lico in conjunction with EDRA SOTO: The Myth of Closure / El Mito del Cierre, on Wednesday, December 15 at 7:00 p.m. This is an in-person event. Reservations are not required, but encouraged.
In a suprise announcement from Hyde Park Art Center this last Monday it was made known that the center had received an anonymous donation of $560,000 to be distrubuted to artist run spaces and curatorial ventures in Chicago. With this grant money they have decided to award $8,000 to each of their participants of "Artist Run Chicago" and the rest will be disbursed into 20 additional grants. Amongst the grant reciepients is Edra Soto's space, The Franklin. The Franklin, which is run out of her home, is a beloved community-oriented show space in East Garfield Park.
The gallery is pleased to announce that Edra Soto's Open 24 Hours (Albright-Knox ), was recently aquired by the DePaul Art Museum at DePaul University, Chicago. Soto, who recently participated in group show Unreachable Spring also became affliated with the gallery this year. Her work is an unrelenting love song of purserverance and community action through the challenges of socio-economic disparity and institutional racism. Her work Open 24 Hours was conceived on her daily dog walks through Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood where she would collect discarded liquor bottles that she would come across in vacant lots.
In conjunction with the final week of the Unreachable Spring, the gallery will host an artist talk on Zoom, December 19th, 1:00 PM PST / 4:00 PM EST moderated by Luis De Jesus and Lindsay Preston Zappas. This conversation will serve as a summation of the exhibition and provide insight and dialogue towards the socio-political atmophere in which these works were created. From isolation and death, to social activism, to personal responses to systemic oppression, we speak with our artists about making art during a year unlike any other.
Leilani Lynch, curator at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami selected a group of works to highlight as part of the virtual UNTITLED, ART Miami Beach art fair. Within her selection both Edra Soto and Kambui Olujimi's installation works were featured.
The gallery is pleased to announce that Edra Soto will be in conversation with art historian and critic Robert R. Shane organized for the Center for Art and Design at College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY. The talk will focus on Soto's interdisciplinary work around themes of colonization, family, and social justice and will conclude with a poetry reading by Spencer Diaz Tootle.
The gallery is pleased to announce that Edra Soto has received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. The Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant is an unrestricted award in which $25,000 is granted to 25 different artists from throughout the United States. Selected artists are first nominated by artist peers and arts professionals from throughout the United States and then chosen through a multi-phase jurying process, which this year was conducted virtually. The 2020 artist cohort represents a wide range of creative approaches and backgrounds as well as ethnicities, ages, and geographic locations—further enumerated below. In addition to the financial award, grantees also gain access to a network of arts professionals, who can provide consultations on career development and financial management.
Edra Soto is currently part of group show, Unreachable Spring, currently on view.
The gallery is pleased to announce that Edra Soto has received the Foundwork Artist Prize. The Foundwork Artist Prize is an annual juried award that we inaugurated in 2019 to recognize outstanding practice by contemporary artists. The honoree receives an unrestricted 10,000 USD grant and studio visits with the distinguished jurors. The honoree and three short-listed artists are also featured in interviews as part of our Dialogues program.
