My work explores everyday associations by combining concrete and symbolic imagery. I conceive of my paintings and sculptures as sites where subjectivity is negotiated, reflecting on issues such as translation, identity, and form. These explorations are rooted in my experience as a woman, an artist and a foreigner as I navigate everyday life.
I perceive art as a dynamic interplay where meaning and objects are in constant flux. My creative process follows a fragmentary logic. It appropriates images and phrases, expressions in both English and Spanish, glimpses of spaces, references to other artists, and objects encountered in life or imagination. I layer images and perspectives, using collage to capture the randomness of thoughts, stretching conventional figurations and ideas. The resulting montages are a combination of figuration and abstraction that weave overlapping ideas to orchestrate deliberate miscommunications.
In my recent solo exhibition, Beat Around the Bush at Praxis Gallery, I delved into the fluidity of meaning through idiomatic expressions, particularly as a foreigner encountering unfamiliar phrases. The exhibition reflected on the richness of misinterpretation and how it reveals new possibilities of meaning. One of the key works, Maria, was a homage to Maria Martins, who is said to have inspired Duchamp’s Étant donnés. In this painting, the iceberg-shaped figure questions the idea of anything being “a given” and envisions female intimacy as a complex landscape that expands beyond what is available to the eye.
Art presents to me as a space where to grapple with the contingency of reality and challenge the automatized conventions in everyday logic. Growing up in Latin America, I have learned to adapt to the political and economic instability of the region. I embrace humor and improvisation to cope with these uncertainties and develop provisional solutions—both physical and emotional—to navigate daily challenges. I pursue fantasy as a way to create alternative pathways: unveiling discomfort, embracing misunderstandings, and welcoming the instability that arises when things are shaken up.
Sofia Quirno (Buenos Aires, 1978)
She lives and works in New York
Education
Quirno holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Parsons, The New School, and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires. She was a fellow at Shandaken Projects Paint School 2020, a discourse-based program for painters in NY and part of The Drawing Center Viewing Program 20/21. Sofía obtained the Sterling Clark Fellowship to attend Vermont Studio Center (2012). She was also an artist in residence at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (2013) and Triangle Arts Workshop (2010).
Solo exhibitions
2024 Beat Around the Bush, Praxis Gallery, New York, NY, United States
2023 El cuerpo es Avant-garde, Galeria Hache, Buenos Aires Argentina
2022 I Went There, Praxis Gallery, New York, NY, United States
2019 Heads and Tails, Praxis Gallery, New York, NY, United States
2017 Importa un pepino, Galería Hache, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2017 After noon, M E N Gallery, NY, United States
2016 Calendar Day, Praxis Gallery, New York, United States.
2015 Sunny Side Up, Sleep Center, curated by UNBAG, NY, United States
2014 MothBall Woman, Praxis Gallery, New York, United States
2013 Entre líneas, Galería Central de Proyectos, Arteba
2012 Serendipia, Galería Cobra, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2012 Tapeando, La Pan, Barcelona, Spain
2011 Un día sin lluvia, Paseo Cultural Carlos Núñez, Buenos Aires Argentina
2010 Saltando baldosas, Galería Central de Proyectos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2009 Hay gato encerrado, This is not a Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Two person exhibitions
2019 A su lado, Brenner Quirno, Galería VASARI, Buenos Aires Argentina
2017 For Starters, Sofia Quirno and Jonathon Haffner, Emily Harvey Foundation, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 CAMPO Artfest, Garzón, Uruguay
2022 Landscapes of Care, MARC, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2022 Landscapes of Care, The Clemente, NY, United States
2021 Makeshift at Art Lot, Brooklyn NY, United States
2021 Sobre/Mesa, LAZO, The Clemente, NY, United States
2020 Mujeres Superpoderosas, Galeria Hache, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2020 Arte BA, Galeria Hache, Artsy, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2019 House- Hold, The Clemente, NY, United States
2018 Galería Hache, ArteBA 2018, Buenos Aires Argentina
2017 Galeria Hache, Untitled Art Fair 2017, Miami, United States
2017 MEN Gallery, Drawing Art Fair, NY, United States
