Soto started out as a graffiti artist in his teens and this has played an obvious influence on his current work. His graffiti-informed method of working is often showcased through huge wall clusters of small paintings and drawings, which are an amalgam of disjointed storytelling and playful formalism. These wall clusters can be seen as a sketchbook that is used to inform his larger paintings, which often contain personal ephemera such as photos and notes.
Root Fucker
FIFTY24SF Gallery in association with Upper Playground Films - The Run Up
Soto’s love of graffiti and letters has also rubbed off on his larger paintings, many of which carry long flowing sentences and phrases. The bubble cloud, a graffiti staple often plays a prominent role in his work, as do spray splatters, drips and buffed areas.
Battle For Twin Palms
Like so many of us who grew up in the 80’s Soto spent his childhood watching science fiction movies and playing with Star Wars figures. Childhood nostalgia is just one theme that is apparent in almost all Soto’s work, as is L.A with its sprawling urban landscape. Soto’s paintings are often clouded in an ominous smog where clusters of organic tendrils dual with retro robots in dark visions of the future. These paintings usually depict conflicts between man and nature where profound visions, fears and themes of love, lust, and hope are visualised using a distinct colour palette.
The Growers
Environmental issues also take precedent for Soto, his paintings exude a tension between man and nature, but it is not all doom and gloom flower bouquets and cacti thrive amidst the ominous skulls as man tries to harness the power of nature.
A New Hope Emerges
In Soto’s most recent series of paintings the dry arid landscape and a palette of browns, yellows and greens has given way to a frozen ice age of cool blues and greys. Soto’s family of characters are still there but have adapted to their environment from retro robots to furry cubes. It seems that starting a family of his own has drawn Soto’s attention to an uncertain future of the world more so than ever, and current affairs such as global warming have become stronger influences then ever in his work.
War Cloud
In his spare time Soto likes to spend time with his family, nurture his ever-growing cacti farm and look for aliens in the sky, we are just glad that his free time is influencing his work and vice versa.
Check him out here…
www.jeffsoto.com
www.jonathanlevinegallery.com
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