Bosco Sodi (b.1970) is known for his minimalist sculptures and highly textured, vividly pigmented paintings. Working between New York and Mexico, the artist demonstrates the dichotomy within these two different environments through an investigative admission of their conceptual and geographical climates. Process and elements of chance become fundamental to Sodi’s practice. Much of the artist’s work is influenced and dictated by the traditional Japanese “Wabi-Sabi” aesthetic philosophy that finds it epitome in the structure of Casa Wabi, residence, studio and non-profit arts centre in Oaxaca, Mexico. Taking this philosophy as an essential reference, Sodi’s paintings take form and shape by embracing the accidental, the moment of non-control, while working in complete harmony with the natural elements. The artist creates a unique texture by mixing sawdust with natural pigments and glue as a binder, applying it directly to the canvas with his bare hands. Sodi works in an intensely direct and performative manner that supports a uniquely transcendental transmission between the creator and work, rejecting any appliances or other forms of assistance. The result reveals a surface of rough texture, cracks and chasms that allow a reading of time and agency. Once monochrome bodies, their material is fractured, revealing beautifully organic structures that subvert the painting and stand as relics of the artist’s direct intervention.
Sodi has exhibited his work internationally and throughout the United States. His works are in significant public and private collections including: Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C; Harvard Art Museums, Boston; JUMEX Collection, México; Museum Voorlinden, Netherlands; Contemporary Art Foundation, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgium; The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; The Scottish National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh, Scotland;The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan; and Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany. In late 2020, Pioneer Works presented an exhibition of Sodi’s titled Perfect Bodies, an installation of large-scale clay spheres in a disused autobody lot in Red Hook, NY. Sodi is the subject of upcoming solo exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, in 2021, and at USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL, in 2022. Previous notable exhibitions include Perfect Bodies, Pioneer Works, New York (2020); Ergo Sum, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2020); Topographies, Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington D.C. (2019); Del Fuego, Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI), Santiago (2018); Por los siglos de los siglos, Museo Nacional de Arte, México City (2017); ELEMENTAL, Museo Anahuacalli, México City (2017); Museum of Stones, The Noguchi Museum, New York (2015); Croacia, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia; and Pangea, Bronx Museum, New York (2010).
