ARTIST / Artist
Bosco Sodi
Bosco Sodi is known for his use of raw, natural materials to create large-scale textured paintings and objects. Sodi has discovered an emotive power within the essential simplicity of his materials and the vivid pigments he sources. Sodi has described his creative process as a “controlled chaos” that makes “something that is completely un-repeatable.” Focusing on material exploration, the creative gesture, and the spiritual connection between the artist and his work, Sodi seeks to transcend conceptual barriers. His works become memories and relics symbolic of the artist’s conversation with the raw material that brought them into creation.
Sodi mixes raw pigment with sawdust, wood, pulp, natural fibers, and glue to create the dense surfaces of the monochrome paintings. As the layers of material dry, structures form without the guidance or intervention of the artist. These fissured ‘landscapes’ are both products of the artist’s creative process and the unpredictable and chance in nature.
In the past few years, Sodi has turned more to sculpture and the traditions of his Mexican heritage. At his studio in Oaxaca, he extracts raw earth from the ground and combines it with water and sand to form clay. He uses this elemental material, one of ancestral significance, to create minimalist sculptures. He shapes the clay with his hands to form smooth, solid cubes, which are left to dry in the sun prior to their firing in a traditional brick kiln. During this process, the material transforms in hue and texture, infusing each cube with its own unique identity. Stacked into columns, the cubes both relate to one another and assert their individuality.
Sodi collects solidified volcanic magma from the Ceboruco volcano in Mexico to make his rock sculptures. He covers these fragments of the natural world with ceramic glaze and precious metals. As they are fired, the volcanic rocks metamorphose into sculptural objects that unite geological processes with traditional and contemporary art-making techniques.
Bosco Sodi has exhibited his work internationally and throughout the United States. This past year, Sodi opened a major sculpture show in the garden at Dallas Museum of Art, and completed his second public installation, Tabula Rasa, in Washington Square Park. Notable institutaionl exhibitions include Por los siglos de los siglos, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City (201&), Museum of Stones, The Noguchi Museu, New York (2015); and Pangea, Bronz Museum, New York (2010). His work is in significant public and private collections worldwide including JUMEX Collection, México; Contemporary Art Foundation, Japan; Harvard Art Museum, Massachusetts; Nasher Sculpture Center, Texas; The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minnesota; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Connecticut; New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California. Forthcoming exhibitions include Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, Venice, Italy and Univiersity of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, USA.
