RESIDENT: SOFI QUIRNO
Our first international artist in residence was Sofi Quirno from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Prior to her arriving we corresponded through email. Often artists ask questions about the residency, about us, the living situations, etc. In one email we were discussing the weather in Canada. Sofi, having never been to Canada, had read about Ontario’s -20 c and was rather concerned about how cold Canada actually was. We responded that January is quite cold and though the thermometer reads -20, the wind chill can make it -35. She prepared accordingly and brought a huge jacket, leggings, and snow pants. Strangely the entire time she was here it was mild and unseasonably warm for January and it stayed this way until the day after she left. She said that she was happy about not experiencing true Canadian winter.
It was a pleasure getting to know Sofi during her three weeks with us. In Argentina Sofi works as a galley assistant at a successful contemporary art galley. Naturally the three of us talked quite extensively about the similarities between the gallery Sofi works art and the gallery Chrissy had been working at. The conclusion we reached was that working at a gallery is hard work! In addition to art discussions we spent a lot of time talking about cultural similarities and differences.
It was really nice to hear about Sofi’s experience being an artist in Buenos Aires. Her art practice is supported by her peers who encourage each other to continue to grow and produce work. She told us that every month the group gets together and critiques one individual’s work and tries to offer guidance and constructive thoughts. We thought that this was a wonderful idea and has got the two of us thinking about how to incorporate something like this group critique into our own practices.
Sofi’s time at Spark Box Studio was spent exploring, developing, and working on a new series based on her experiences during her time in Canada. She worked in the studio, laboring over huge paintings for hours at a time. Generally this lasted until she’d crawl out from the studio and express that her knees hurt.
We also had the opportunity to introduce her to silkscreen as a plausible medium for her work. Upon watching her draw and paint for the first few days it became clear that her style would naturally transfer into silkscreen. We had a fantastic time showing her how silkscreen works and she really did enjoy her self and produced a small stack of prints.
You can visit Sofi’s blog at http://sofiquirno.blogspot.com.
