KP Projects Gallery Presents:
Jeff Soto :: Shadow
Exhibition Dates: October 11th – November 8th, 2024
633. N. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90036
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 11th, 6-9pm
KP Projects is honored to present a new body of work by Jeff Soto, marking a pivotal moment in the artist’s evolving practice. Known for his vivid palette, surreal iconography, and evocative narratives, Soto continues to merge elements of street culture, personal mythology, and natural symbolism.
This exhibition introduces works that span large-scale multi-panel paintings to intimate studies on wood. Through his use of layered acrylics and oils, Soto creates dreamlike worlds that speak to cycles of decay and renewal, the passage of time, and the coexistence of beauty and fragility.
"With Shadow, I explore the tradition of still life painting to reflect on our turbulent present and the lingering weight of the past.
Following my 2023 exhibition Sadlands, which explored technology and the future through landscape, Shadow moves indoors and looks inward with still lifes, one of painting’s oldest genres. Everyday objects, taxidermy, cacti and houseplants, along with artifacts from analog culture- books, records, and polaroid pictures- are reimagined as vessels of memory and meaning. Some items are based on reality, others imagined entirely. Each painting is a kind of time capsule, balancing presence and loss.
Unlike the symbols of wealth often found in historical still life paintings (goblets, jewels, exotic fruits), these works embrace the ordinary and the ghostly. They call back to the things that shaped my generation- the media that imprinted on us, the objects we live with daily, and the shadows of experiences and people long past.
Still life has always fascinated me, I teach painting, and I’ve spent years setting up still lifes for students. I enjoy the play of light and shadow, texture and color. These are objects that tell my story while, hopefully, leaving space for viewers to find their own. The works ask viewers to slow down, sit with details, and find their own stories contained in each object.
The title Shadow carries multiple meanings. Shadows obscure, but they also give form through light; they speak to absence as well as presence. In the paintings, shadow becomes metaphor for the uncertainty of our times, for memory itself, and for the way history lives in the objects we keep."
- Jeff Soto
