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Last week, I embarked on a trip from Salem, Massachusetts, to the vibrant city of New York with my friend Saniego Sánchez, director of the Museo El Punto Urban Art Museum. After a five-hour drive, we arrived in the Big Apple and, after a quick search for parking, decided to leave our vehicle in front of Poe Park, where Edgar Allan Poe’s cabin is still preserved. Saniego took care of paying for several hours at the parking meter, well aware of how strict New York City police can be with parking fines.
From there, we headed to Kingsbridge Road station on the Grand Concourse, not far from Majestic Court in the Bronx, where the legendary Stanley Kubrick once resided at 2715 Grand Concourse. We took the D train, filled with excitement for the exhibition we were about to see. During the ride, we discussed art and its various forms of expression in contemporary times. We transferred at 59th St-Columbus Circle to take the A train to 23rd St, and then walked several blocks to Morgan Lehman Gallery.
Upon arriving at the building, we took the elevator to the fourth floor and entered Suite 410, where Edra Soto’s exhibition was taking place. The exhibition, titled “Por la Señal”, greeted me with a series of abstract works inspired by Puerto Rican ironwork. These forged iron structures are common in lower- and middle-class communities throughout the archipelago, and Soto has reinterpreted them with great skill.
In this exhibition, Soto reimagines the tabernacle, a devotional object known as “the place of residence” from her days in a Catholic school. She incorporates photographs from her frequent trips to Puerto Rico into the artworks through built-in viewers. This approach allows her to question colonial indoctrination practices and transform the tabernacle into a space dedicated to personal memories. Additionally, she presents a porcelain collection titled “Dos Cuerpos / Two Bodies”, which reinterprets the abstract patterns of the ironwork to explore new forms of communication.
The title “Por la Señal”, taken from a Catholic ritual phrase, also hints at themes of communication and migration. Through this series, Soto explores her migratory experiences and her connection to her maternal heritage, offering a personal perspective on the cultural and historical elements that shape her identity. The exhibition not only sheds light on Puerto Rican cultural memory but also provides a powerful perspective on American colonial history.
Edra Soto, born in 1971 in Puerto Rico, is an artist, curator, and educator with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico. Her work is included in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Smithsonian, and the DePaul Art Museum. Soto has exhibited her work at the Smithsonian Museum, El Museo del Barrio, MCA Chicago, and ICA San Diego, and has received numerous awards, including the US Latinx Art Forum Fellowship and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant. Her work has also been presented in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba through the International Connections Fund of the MacArthur Foundation.
Soto’s exhibition at Morgan Lehman Gallery is a testament to her ability to blend art, memory, and history, offering a rich and thought-provoking experience for all visitors.
