Jonathan LeVine Gallery is proud to announce Storm Clouds, a solo exhibit of new works by Jeff Soto and the artist’s second major show at the gallery. Storm Clouds features over thirty new works on wood panel and paper, as well as large-scale installations that will focus on the theme of politics, fear, and fatherhood. Storm Clouds is Jeff Soto’s most politically charged exhibition to date.
For Storm Clouds, Jeff Soto explores his predominant fears and anxieties over his daughter’s future, the civil war in Iraq, and the United States policies on environmental conservation. Soto’s concern for the American population’s indifference and a general disconnection to global affairs are motivating factors behind his overtly mature subject matter. Storm Clouds is ripe with metaphors that allude to the fate of the planet should neglect and indifference prevail. Soto’s expressive narratives evoke inherent contradictions, crossing between notions of a precarious and fragile natural world on the brink of extinction with one that is an indestructible, organic mass.
Executed with a sophisticated mélange of graffiti and mixed media techniques, Jeff Soto’s paintings permeate with influences of popular culture, science fiction, and memories of nuclear war. Illustrating these notions, Soto creates a futuristic world where ominous clouds dominate, exotic plants struggle to survive, and colored prisms symbolize hope amidst desolate landscapes. Soto’s creatures, floating gardens, and religious symbols exist in entangled masses, revealing a civilization’s decline, destruction, and efforts to regenerate. In this surreal universe, an inevitable ice age has befallen, humans are extinct and fantastic robotic creatures flourish. Swarms of oil-like cloud formations expand on themes of death and decay, while subtle and bold use of text emphasizes the artist’s most intense trepidations and desires.
Jeff Soto was born in 1975 in Fullerton, California. He currently lives and works in Riverside, California. In 2002, he graduated with distinction from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 2008, his work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum titled Turning in Circles. His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States and Europe. Soto has been featured in numerous publications and published two monographs: Potato Stamp Dreams in 2005 and Storm Clouds in 2008.
