Edra Soto
Edra Soto is a Puerto-Rican born artist, curator, educator, and co-director of the outdoor project space, The Franklin. Soto instigate meaningful, relevant, and often difficult conversations surrounding socioeconomic and cultural oppression, erasure of history, and loss of cultural knowledge. 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 El Museo del Barrio (NY), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago (IL), ICA San Diego, (CA), Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling (NY) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY). She has been awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, the Illinois Arts Council Agency Fellowship, the inaugural Foundwork Artist Prize, the Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award and the US LatinX Art Forum Fellowship among others. Soto exhibited and traveled to Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as part of the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. Soto has attended residency programs at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME, Beta-Local, PR, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, FL, Headlands Center for the Arts, NY, Project Row Houses, TX and Art Omi, NY, among others. Upcoming exhibitions include her participation at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, O’Hare’s International Airport Terminal 5 Expansion Project, Untitled Miami Beach with Morgan Lehman Gallery and Art Basel Miami Beach with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. 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. The artist lives and works in Chicago.
Edra Soto, nacida en Puerto Rico, es una artista, curadora, educadora y co-directora del espacio de proyectos al aire libre The Franklin. Soto fomenta conversaciones significativas, relevantes y, a menudo, difíciles sobre la opresión socioeconómica y cultural, el borrado de la historia y la pérdida del conocimiento cultural. Al crecer en Puerto Rico y ahora inmersa en su comunidad de Chicago, el trabajo de Soto ha evolucionado para plantear preguntas sobre los órdenes sociales construidos, la identidad diaspórica y el legado del colonialismo.Soto ha expuesto extensamente en lugares como El Museo del Barrio (NY), Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago (IL), ICA San Diego, (CA), Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling (NY) y Whitney Museum of American Art (NY). Ha sido galardonada con la Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, la Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, la Illinois Arts Council Agency Fellowship, el inaugural Foundwork Artist Prize, el Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award y la US LatinX Art Forum Fellowship, entre otras. Soto ha expuesto y viajado a Brasil, Puerto Rico y Cuba como parte de la MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. Soto ha asistido a programas de residencia en la Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME, Beta-Local, PR, la Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, FL, Headlands Center for the Arts, NY, Project Row Houses, TX and Art Omi, NY, entre otras. Próximas exposiciones incluyen su participación en la Chicago Architecture Biennial, O’Hare’s International Airport Terminal 5 Expansion Project, Untitled Miami Beach con Morgan Lehman Gallery y Art Basel Miami Beach con Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. Soto tiene una Maestría en Bellas Artes por parte del Art Institute of Chicago y una Licenciatura en la Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico. La artista vive y trabaja en Chicago.
