ALWAYS EVERYTHING | Sofia Heftersmith

ALWAYS EVERYTHING | Sofia Heftersmith

ARTIST RECEPTION: Saturday, November 12, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

EXHIBITION: November 12 – December 31, 2022

Sofia Heftersmith is devoted to something, or maybe everything. Her studio contains a collection of objects that would make the most brazen hoarder blush. Porcelain figurines and plastic rocking horses commingle with 1970s Playboy magazines and painted cinder blocks, but her collections aren’t mere clutter. There is unity in the chaos. Meanings can be found, and connections can be drawn between even the most seemingly discordant items. As an artist, Sofia devotes herself to objects that might initially invite only passing regard and she welcomes her viewers to form their own idiosyncratic devotions to them. Blending the mediums of painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, and text, she seeks to find the fluidity of meanings that exists in scraps of found items and images. Her practice is a multi-disciplinary mixture that explores chaos, exaggeration, the grotesque, and the erotic, but above all it explores devotion itself.  Heftersmith states “When you enter an environment that holds artwork, you go and devote your time and your energy. You enter into the space ready to have an experience. There’s not a lot of places people go without preconceived ideas of what they're going to feel. The only expected thing is an encounter with something previously unknown. Always everything is a house of worship”.

Sofia Heftersmith (b. 2001) is a self-taught, multi-disciplinary artist born and raised on the beaches of Southern California. Her love of art started with her parents, who both painted and exposed her to other artists and forms of art. Growing up submerged in skate and surf culture, she was influenced by the like-minded artists that made up Beautiful Losers, as well as art history icons Frida Kahlo, Philip Guston, Harry Who, Nancy Spero, Leon Golub, Picabia, Pauline Boty and countless others.