Voices: Edra Soto

Edra Soto presents an artist talk as part of the Voices lecture series on February 20 at 6pm in the Gallery 400 lecture room.

Edra Soto (b. Puerto Rico) is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist, educator, curator, and co-director of the outdoor project space THE FRANKLIN. She is invested in creating and providing visual and educational models propelled by empathy and generosity. Her recent projects are motivated by civic and social actions focus on fostering relationships with a wide range of communities.

Recent venues presenting Soto’s work include the Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL, Hunter East Harlem Gallery, NY, UIC Gallery 400, IL, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, NE, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, IL. Most recently, Soto was awarded the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, the DCASE for Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago.  Soto has attended residency programs at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME, Beta-Local, PR, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, FL, Arts/Industry at the Kohler Art Center, WI, and Ragdale Foundation, IL, amongst others. This year, her project Open 24 Hours was commissioned by Headlands Center for the Arts, CA,  to be presented at their Project Space as part of her residency. Also this year, Project Row Houses, TX, hosted her residency as part of the 222 Exchange Program in partnership with the Hyde Park Art Center.

Her co-curation for the exhibition Present Standard at the Chicago Cultural Center was praised with overwhelmingly positive reviews from the Chicago Tribune, Newcity, PBS The Art Assignment and  Artforum. Soto was recently featured in Newcity’s annual Art 50 issue Chicago’s Artists’ Artists and VAM Studio 2017 Influencers.

She is a lecturer for the Contemporary Practices Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, were she received an MFA, and a bachelor’s degree from Escuela de Artes Plastics de Puerto Rico.