Edra Soto (born 1971, Puerto Rico) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and co-director of the artist-run outdoor project space The Franklin.

Biography

Edra Soto was born in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

in 1971. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Escuela de Artes Plasticas de Puerto Rico in 1994. After moving to Chicago, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

in 2000. She has received several awards, including the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2016) and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Individual Artists Award (2017). She has curated numerous exhibitions, including co-curating ''Present Standard'' at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2016. She is a faculty member in the Contemporary Practices Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally.

The Franklin

In 2012, Soto and her husband Dan Sullivan founded The Franklin, an artist-run project space in the backyard of their home in Garfield Park, featuring installations and site-specific work by Chicago and national artists. The Franklin Collection of over 200 artworks by local, national, and international artists is also at the Garfield Park location.

Works

Soto's ongoing site-specific GRAFT series, begun in 2013, incorporates the geometric designs of iron ''rejas'' screens popular throughout Puerto Rico. In 2014, Soto and Dan Sullivan were awarded a public art commission from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) for the Blue Line Western Station. Their work will be a large-scale installation for the stationhouse exterior. Edra Soto was an Artist-in-Residence at Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego, California, in 2023. In 2024, Soto received the Joyce Foundation award from the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio; and was selected by the New York

Public Art Fund Public Art Fund is an independent, non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 by Doris C. Freedman. The organization presents contemporary art in New York City's public spaces through a series of highly visible artists' projects, new commissions ...

to present a project in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

. Her work was included in the group show ''Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape'' at the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

, Pittsburgh; and acquired by the

Pérez Art Museum Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Maurice A. Ferré Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Cent ...

, Florida.

Personal life

Soto is married to Dan Sullivan, and the two are frequent creative collaborators.

Exhibitions (selection)

*2015 ''DOMINODOMINO'', with Dan Sullivan, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY *2017 ''Manual GRAFT'', University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal IL *2017 ''OPEN 24 HOURS'', Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago *2017 ''Traduttore,Traditore'', Gallery 400, Chicago *2019 ''Forgotten Forms'', Chicago Cultural Center *2019 ''Cross Currents: Intercambio Cultural'', Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba and Smart Museum, Chicago (forthcoming) *2023 ''Edra Soto: Graft'', Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California *2024 ''Edra Soto: Graft'', Central Park (as part of

's exhibition programming), New York

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soto, Edra 1971 births Living people 21st-century Puerto Rican women educators Puerto Rican women artists Artists from Chicago School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni 20th-century Puerto Rican women educators 20th-century Puerto Rican educators American women curators American curators