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Valentina Soto
MFA Fellowship 2020
Valentina Soto (University of Pennsylvania) is a recipient of the 2020 Master of Fine Arts Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture.
Valentina Soto was born and raised in Santiago de Chile and came to the United States to complete her MFA. She is interested in how the histories of exploitation of natural resources, colonization and current sociopolitical conditions can be understood and conveyed through art. Her work largely critiques and illuminates the colonial history of Latin America and the Caribbean by drawing on the work of early ethnologists, naturalists, and archeologists who explored and documented life in the Americas during the Spanish conquest. In her work Frágil Sumario de la Historia Natural de las Indias (A Fragile Natural History of the Indies), Ms. Soto creates clay and plaster sculptures based on drawings from the book Summary of the Natural History of the Indies (1526). She then exposes the objects to dripping water, creating a system of disintegration where the iconographic colonial objects erode and collapse.
Líneas del horizonte (Horizon lines), January 2019, 21 found glass jars, 61 inch tall shelf, unfired clay and porcelain, water, 6 individuals, variable dimensions, 9:29 minutes.
Construiré mi propia fuente (I’ll build my own fountain), April 2019, tarp, metal, garden hose, water, unfired clay modeled after introduced plants from the tropics used as ornament in landscape, variable dimensions.
Traducción naturalista (Natural translation), February 2018, cabinet, unfired clay, wax, PLA (3D printing), 62 x 16 x 22 inches.
Del ruido al silencio: valoración de ruinas industrials en zonas rurales (From noise to silence: assessment of industrial ruins in rural zones), April 2018, unfired clay, variable dimensions.
Ni he visto hasta ahora animal tan feo ni que parezca ser más inútil que aqueste (I have never seen such an ugly animal or one that is more useless), December 2019, wood, inkjet print, projection, audio in spanish, variable dimensions.
Frágil sumario de la historia natural de las indias (A Fragile Natural History of the Indies), May 2019, wood, DIY rain barrels, irrigation sprinkle system, plaster, unfired clay and porcelain, water, plexiglass container, variable dimensions.
Muestrario de Nueva Granada (Samples of New Grenade), May 2016, 12 pieces of unfired clay, ceramics and glazed ceramics, variable dimensions.
Tropical, May 2016, 6 banana leaves casted in recycled rubber, 55 x 15 x 1 (each leaf approximately).
Líneas del horizonte (Horizon lines), January 2019, 21 found glass jars, 61 inch tall shelf, unfired clay and porcelain, water, 6 individuals, variable dimensions, 9:29 minutes.
Construiré mi propia fuente (I’ll build my own fountain), April 2019, tarp, metal, garden hose, water, unfired clay modeled after introduced plants from the tropics used as ornament in landscape, variable dimensions.
Traducción naturalista (Natural translation), February 2018, cabinet, unfired clay, wax, PLA (3D printing), 62 x 16 x 22 inches.
Del ruido al silencio: valoración de ruinas industrials en zonas rurales (From noise to silence: assessment of industrial ruins in rural zones), April 2018, unfired clay, variable dimensions.
Ni he visto hasta ahora animal tan feo ni que parezca ser más inútil que aqueste (I have never seen such an ugly animal or one that is more useless), December 2019, wood, inkjet print, projection, audio in spanish, variable dimensions.
Frágil sumario de la historia natural de las indias (A Fragile Natural History of the Indies), May 2019, wood, DIY rain barrels, irrigation sprinkle system, plaster, unfired clay and porcelain, water, plexiglass container, variable dimensions.
Muestrario de Nueva Granada (Samples of New Grenade), May 2016, 12 pieces of unfired clay, ceramics and glazed ceramics, variable dimensions.
Tropical, May 2016, 6 banana leaves casted in recycled rubber, 55 x 15 x 1 (each leaf approximately).
