Bosco Sodi | Curved Surfaces

Curved Surfaces is the title of the second solo show by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi in Brazil. This exhibition, being held in Luciana Brito Galeria’s annex, features a set of works that deal with the relationship between art and sustainability, while also approaching the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in imperfection. One of the most important currently active visual artists from Latin America, Bosco Sodi investigates the potential of materials from natural origins coupled with traditional Latin American values and concepts. The show opens on April 2 and runs until May 14.

 

In Brazil for the first time, one of Bosco Sodi’s most emblematic series, Perfect Bodies, features spheres produced from blocks of clay extracted from the soil of Oaxaca (Mexico), the city where he maintains his studio, Casa Wabi. “These “perfectly imperfect” sculptures are molded by the artist’s hands to then undergo a natural process of maturation by being dried in both shade and sunlight as well as fired in a rustic kiln created by the artist himself. This procedure, which involves the four elements of nature – water, earth, fire and air – confers unique aspects to each of the pieces, which bear the “scars” and chromatic nuances proper to the process. Thus, the works are not only imprinted with the artist’s gestures but also with the layers of time, in a collaborative process between the artist, the material and nature.

 

Bosco Sodi’s artistic investigation is guided by an understanding of the relationship between the material and the metaphysical, and of the transformative power of creation and gestures through what is natural. And this same understanding underlies the activities of Casa Wabi. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, Casa Wabi combines the precision of Japanese culture with the natural beauty of Puerto Escondido, in Oaxaca’s coastal region. The space currently houses the Casa Wabi Foundation, a nonprofit artistic center, a worldwide benchmark that also offers artist residencies and acts as an important social agent for the local community.

 

 Casa Wabi served as a refuge for the artist and his family during the most critical moment of the pandemic. During that period, the artist produced two series of works called Sun Paintings and Moon Sack Paintings. They were both made using the materials that were at hand at that time, the canvas being replaced by the rough surface of burlap bags used for storing chilis, a traditional product in Mexican culinary. For the works of the sun series, Bosco Sodi painted circles in different positions in the colors yellow, orange and red, while the moon paintings involve dark circles. The works, which still bear the fragrance of chilis, were inspired by the landscape surrounding Casa Wabi.

 

The show also presents two texturized paintings being shown here for the first time. Made with organic materials and natural pigments, subjected to uninterrupted processes carried out by the artist, each of the paintings bears unique aspects arising from the randomness of the unforeseen.