the place of dwelling | NADA
Edra Soto at NADA, New York
2025
Morgan Lehman Gallery presents a selection of Soto’s latest works that expand her engagement with architectural language and social practice. These works draw from the intricate wrought iron patterns found throughout Puerto Rico—decorative yet functional designs that subtly reflect histories of colonization, migration, and resistance. Soto renders these motifs in painted Sintra, a material that allows for formal precision and a striking visual flatness, offering a contemporary evolution of her long-running “Graft” series.
Embedded within the large-scale sculptural panels are signature viewfinders—peephole-like openings that house photographs captured by Soto. These intimate snapshots of vernacular architecture, domestic life, and cultural iconography create layered portals into personal and collective memory. By merging the language of residential design with visual storytelling, Soto invites viewers to navigate the tensions among public and private space, abstraction and documentation, and presence and longing. The works on view reframe ornament as a lens for critical reflection—an architectural trace of identity and inheritance.
Featured works:
por la señal, 2025
plastic, wood, latex paint, viewfinder, inkjet
sizes included:
9"h x 9"w x 3" d
12"h x 12"w x 3" d
22"h x 22"w x 3"d
dos cuerpos, 2024
porcelain mounted to MDF
21 1/2h x 21 1/2w x 3d in
a welcoming dwelling, 2025
plastic, wood, latex paint, porcelain
40 x 40 x 7 in