Jairo Sosa

Bio: Jairo Sosa is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York engaging with elements of popular culture to form unique contemporary social mythologies. In sculptures, paintings, and mixed media installations he incorporates found materials alongside traditional mediums to illuminate the relationship between place and culture. Tackling issues of class systems and race, his work creates a visual vocabulary heavily influenced by sports culture, and more specifically basketball, conveying stories of both hope and tragedy.

Artist Statement: Producing sculptures, paintings, and prints on handmade paper, the interdisciplinary philosophy of my work is an echo of my inspiration and experience. As an Afro-Latino from South Bronx, the subjects of my pieces are often an amalgamation of obstructions imposed by society on the basis of race and class.

The series 2003 is a survey of the jerseys LeBron James has worn throughout his playing career. The jerseys are stretched over panel and then repainted using heavy applications of oil and enamel paint mixed with sand to imbibe the painting with a rough texture. This texture undermines the seductive and painstakingly built-up surface of these paintings to illustrate and underscore the tension in the desire to elevate one’s station in life and the sacrifices that come along with it.

Another component of the series 2003 is the escapism that results from the hero worship of athletes. The yearning for a larger-than-life persona or event to pull you from the destitution you inhabit offers an addictive albeit brief escape, more specifically the fallacy of the dream of being a professional athlete and using sports as a vehicle for class and economic mobility.

A metaphor for the rage disenfranchised people feel reconciling a second-class status in the first world, Came A Long Way From The Hallway depicts Ming, a 400-pound Siberian tiger clawing at an NYPD Officer inside of a New York City Housing Authority apartment. A floor sculpture consisting of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family and cement is chained to the panel.

I chose and layered the texts specifically because The Warmth of Other Suns speaks to migrations based on promises of a better life only to face disillusionment and abandonment. Random Family struck a more personal chord as it was based in The Bronx detailing how four young adults reconcile and negotiate the punitive effects of the war on drugs and mass incarceration. Stacking them chronologically, I cemented them together to illustrate how fixed these conditions are if you are born into that underclass.

The use of source objects within my work is essential because it isn’t enough to render for me. I source materials to satisfy intent; choosing to use resin because of the heat given off during the chemical reaction when mixed, to melt the plastic to approximate the look of wet basketballs in bags, or seeking out the right gauge of chain to illustrate weight and power.

Wrapping the balls in plastic bags and directing Kyrie to dribble outside on rainy days, the slick surface and added weight from the water made the drills more challenging. My sculptures imitate that slicked surface and illustrate the ways people are required to overachieve while working within parameters, in turn speaking to the resilience necessary to obtain any measure of success or survival.

Represented in my recent work, my aim is to introduce and expose the complex and corrosive implications of structural racism, income inequality, and culture. I wish to expand on the level of abstraction used in conjunction with concept and practice through the reconciliation of history, memory, and identity.

Selected Exhibitions: 

2020: 11:11, At Peace Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2017: Recostruir, The Cooper Union, New York, NY. Traces, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ. Background 19, The Cooper Union, New York, NY. Room for Learning, The Cooper Union, New York, NY.

2015: Be me, for a little while, The Cooper Union, New York, NY.

Education: 

2023: MFA Columbia University, New York NY.

2017: BFA The Cooper Union for Advancement for Science and Art, New York NY

2016: The Cooper Union for the Advancement for Science and Art Exchange Program

2010-2011: Deans List The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

Social: @jairo_sola