Booth walkthrough
CHRIS SOAL
Piero Atchugarry Gallery (Miami, Manantiales, Pueblo Garzón)
In Spanish, without translation.
Open to the public.
The material in front of us tells only part of the story. How it was found, why it was chosen, what it resisted, and what it became belong to another layer of the work. Chris Soal’s sculpture asks how value is constructed: why certain things are preserved, others discarded, and how perception can transform one category into the other. Questions of ecology and consumption run through a practice in which ordinary objects acquire new social and perceptual lives. ESTE FOCUS is a moment to look closely, listen carefully, and understand the ideas behind the work, and the process that brought it into being.
CURATORIAL VISION
Piero Atchugarry Gallery presents Chris Soal’s first solo presentation in Uruguay, bringing together works from his Bottlecaps, Toothpicks, and Sandpaper series. Soal transforms mass-produced and discarded materials through accumulation, repetition, and erosion. Metal bottle caps form undulating reliefs; thousands of wooden toothpicks generate surfaces that shift with the viewer’s movement; and fragments of used sandpaper retain traces of friction, wear, and previous use. These materials acquire biomorphic qualities that evoke skin, coral, and landscape. The presentation examines how perception and value change when familiar objects are removed from their expected functions and reorganized through intensive processes of making.
BIO
Chris Soal (b. 1994, South Africa) is a sculptor whose practice examines materiality, perception, ecology, and place. Raised in Johannesburg and based in Cape Town, he works with everyday and discarded materials including toothpicks, bottle caps, concrete, and sandpaper. Through aggregation, combination, and erosion, Soal transforms these familiar objects into tactile forms that often evoke organic structures and natural phenomena. His work considers the histories and social meanings embedded in materials while positioning the body as an active site of perception. His practice has gained international recognition through exhibitions and institutional presentations, including a solo project at MAXXI in Rome.