Bosco Sodi Behind the Scenes
Tucked away on an unassuming pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Mexican artist Bosco Sodi’s studio looks more like an aircraft hangar than a place for art making. The square footage isn’t an unnecessary luxury, considering the amount of space required to create the mammoth alien landscapes that the artist is best known for. Sodi’s latest project, for example, is a 60-foot-long piece commissioned by Dustin Yellin’s art incubator Pioneer Works, entitled The Last Day. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of its creation here. Sodi’s ”The Last Day” on view from November 7th to December 12 at Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231.
Bosco Sodi in his seaside Red Hook studio.
“I was a little bit tired of doing colors, so I wanted to make something that gives another completely different feeling.”
“I have a good friendship with Dustin [Yellin], so when they approached to do something for Pioneer Works, I decided to create a big piece for their main wall. It’s a unique space in New York, it’s a little bit boring to do the same show in the same Chelsea space all the time.”
“Silver is a series I’ve been doing lately. I like the coldness of the color.”
“I found this iridescent pigment in Japan. It’s very expensive but I haven’t been able to find it here. I like the effect it adds.”
“Sometimes collectors ask about buying my shoes. One of my old gallerists from Berlin, he was always asked about my shoes because they were even more covered than these.”
“For me, painting is a pleasure. And any pleasure should be accompanied by music. I listen to everything from Coltrane and jazz to Dave Matthews and Beethoven.”
“I keep everything ready in T frames, because after Sandy I didn’t have time to take everything out. So now, if a big storm comes I can put everything in a truck in four hours.”
“At my studio in Mexico, the sun is very strong. We have this big patio where we can put the paintings to dry. There, the cracks are very fast and chaotic. Here, near the ocean, the humidity creates these deeper more rhythmic ridges.”
“I prefer to make big things rather than small things. I like to feel like a small part of a big universe. It’s the perspective that we must not forget. It makes you humble and it’s beautiful, no?”
