Realms of Potentiality: Gabriel Soto
Realms of Potentiality reflect on our current socioeconomic situations that had exposed vulnerable populations across the United States and around the Globe. Gabriel Soto explores these issues by incorporating figures performing manual labor tasks which reflect the realities of front-line workers, drawing inspiration from East-German paintings and Soviet propaganda posters.
Scuba Squad and The Fermion Boy, 2020. Oil on Canvas, 48” x 60”.
I think painting, in its beginning, was conceived as a way for creating a liminal space. Its purpose was to make a place where the barrier between our material world and the metaphysical world that we can only theorize and experience in visions. What I try to do in my paintings is blur the line between my experience of the world I inhabit and a realm that I can only understand through the language of symbols and images.
AGAH, 2020. Oil on Canvas, 60” x 48”.
Working Line, 2020. Oil on Canvas, 60” x 48”.
Fall into Kenoma, 2020. Oil on Canvas, 60” x 48”.
Unconsciously, figures that resemble workers have appeared in some of my paintings. They come from my influence form East-German paintings and soviet propaganda, but at the same time, my frustration with the current socioeconomic situation so many people are facing in the United States.
DAFOND, 2020. Oil on Canvas, 48” x 60”.
Screen Watch,2021. Oil on Canvas mounted on Panel, 27” x 35”.
I don’t have a plan when I begin a painting. The more I’ve painted after graduating, the less I like the idea of making studies and preparing for a painting. I like to feel as if I’m putting myself in danger as I progress through the process. A painting is not just an object. It’s a mental excursion into the unknown. I like to feel as if I might get lost in it as I keep painting. That maybe, if I don’t play my moves correctly, I might not return.
Split Motion,2020. Oil on Panel, 17” x 17”.
I have a lot of influences in my painting practice. Pop art, abstract expressionism, surrealism, and all sorts of vintage imagery. Most of the work that inspires me painting comes from the early- mid 20th century. It’s as if the historical events from the last century (the cold war, modernism, the social/political political shifts in America) still have to be resolved in my unconscious, and they create an amalgam of images in my work.
NAJ WALTEN,2021. Oil and Glue on Canvas, 49” x 49”.
About Gabriel Soto
Gabriel Soto (b. El Salvador, 1993) is an artist with an interest in vintage imagery, philosophy, science, and esotericism. He graduated in 2017 from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with a BFA, where he trained in figurative and representational art.
His work has been shown in several exhibits in Maryland, DC, as well as the midwest and in virtual spaces. In 2023 he was the recipient of the Grant for Artists by the Maryland State Arts Council.
Primarily focused on the dialectic between archaic metaphysics and modern scientific ontology, Gabriel is currently based out of the Washington DC area, where he resides as a DACA recipient.
Website: https://www.gabrielsoto.work
Instagram: @ga_so_art
