Martin Soto Climent

Born 1977, Mexico City, Mexico
Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico

Solo Exhibitions

2016
Frenetic Gossamer, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Museo Pietro Canonica, Rome, Italy

2015
Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico
Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Mexico
The Contemporary Comedy: Glossy Mist, Clifton Benevento, New York, NY

2014
Luster Butterfly, T293, Rome, IT
All That I Never Was
, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, CA

2013
Mariposas Migratorias (Migratory Butterflies), Clifton Benevento, New York, NY

2012
The Equation of Desire, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
I miss my thread, Karma International, Zurich, Switzerland
The Bright of the Whisper, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
La Alcoba Doble, T293, Naples and Rome, Italy

2011
Frenetic Gossamer, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, CA
Puma de Plata, El ECO Museo Experimental,  Mexico City, Mexico

2010
Following the Whisper of My Shadow, Clifton Benevento, New York, NY
A Long Chapter One, Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, UK
Frieze, T293, London

2009
El Mago, Martin Van Zomeren, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Laberintome, T293, Naples, Italy
Impulsive Chorus, X Initiative, New York, NY
The Intimate Revolt. Karma International, Zurich, Switzerland
For Your Eyes Only, La Sala, Mexico City, Mexico
Martin Soto Climent, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, CA

2008
Art Positions, Art Basel Miami, Miami (with Broadway 1602, New York)
Hidden Symmetries, Broadway 1602, New York, NY
01.18.08, T293, Naples, Italy

2007
Vacio Contenido
, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico

2006
Checkmate
, Broadway 1602, New York, NY
Study Objects, Nina Menocal Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2005
Other Objects
, The Other Gallery, The Banff Center, Alberta, Canada
Biotic Project
, Subway Station Tacuba, Mexico City, Mexico

2004
Cotton Candy Doves
, MUCA, Mexico City, Mexico
Throw Balls
, UNAM- The University Cultural Building, Mexico City, Mexico

2003
Curious objects vol.1
, The space, Mexico City, Mexico
Curious objects vol.2
, The space, Mexico City, Mexico
03-03-03
, Jardín Hidalgo, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico

2002
It was green
, Museo Desierto de los Leones, Mexico City, Mexico

2001
Empty Spaces (Journey Sensations)
, Casa de la Cultura Malinalxochitl, Malinalco, Mexico
One of so Many
, Young Artist Collective, Sebastián Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico

Group Exhibitions

2016
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria

2015
Road to Ruin, Cooper Cole, Toronto, NY
U:L:O Part I, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY
Hong Kongese, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK

2014
Slippery, Martos Gallery, New York, NY
Unbound: Contemporary Art After Frida Kahlo, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Unsparing Quality, Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA

2013
The Unicorn, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
To Pack and Wear, Kate Werble, New York, NY
Black Moon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
they might well have been remnants of the boat, Calder Foundation, New York, NY
The First and the Last Folding,  Swiss Church, London, UK
Notes on Neo-Camp, Office Baroque, Antwerpen, Belgium
Opinione Latina, Francesca Minini, Milan, Italy

2012
A Disagreeable Object, Sculpture Center, New York, NY
Erogenous Zones, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
A Stepping Stone, Autocenter in Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Death Can Dance, Townhouse, Zurich, Switzerland
economy of means: towards humility in contemporary sculpture, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ 

2011
Emerge Selections, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
The Moment Pleasantly Frightful, curated by Chris Sharp, Laura Bartlett Gallery, London, UK
Ricing, Agovino collection, Napoli, Italy
There are two sides to every coin and two sides to your face. Xippas Gallery, Paris, France
Energies, unplugged and reloaded, Häusler Contemporary, Zurich, Switzerland
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials…, Johann Köning, Berlin, Germany
Neue Welt, view over Autocenter, SALTS, Basel, Switzerland
The Idea of the Thing that It Isn’t, Halsey McKay Gallery, Hamptons, NY
Living Live, The Center, New York, NY

2010
Its All American,
New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art, Asbury Park, NJ
Mascarade, Chambers à part IV,
Place du Trocadéro, Paris, France
Une Idée, une Forme, un Être – Poésie/Politique du corporel,
Migros Museum,Zürich, Switzerland
Digging in a Sandbox,
Max Hans Daniel, Berlin, Germany
Between Spaces,
PS1 Long Island City, New York, NY
Swagger, Drag, Fit Together,
Wallspace,New York, NY
While Bodies Get Mirrored
, Migros Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
Tu:  Adventure in Space,
Willa Lentza, Szczecin, Poland
Anonymous Materials
, Stiftung Binz 39, Zürich, Switzerland
Not Extractions, but Abstractions (Part 2)
, Clifton Benevento, New York, NY
Still Vast Reserves, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
, FitzroyVictoria
Latitude Contemporary Art Exhibition (LCA),
Henham Park, Suffolk, U.K.

2009
‘Summerbreak’
, Hotel, London, UK
The Reach of Realism
, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Melodies & Rocks/ Copyright
, Karma International, Zurich, Switzerland
Between Spaces
, MoMA PS 1, Long Island City, New York, NY
(re)Visions: (di)Visions
, The Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, WI
Ordinary Revolutions
, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Zero Budget Biennal
. Various locations, Paris, France
Not Soul for Sale,
X initiative, New York, NY
Collection of…,
White Columns, New York, NY
Between the Cup and Lip
, V&A, New York, NY
Nudes
, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Max Hans Daniel present
, Autocenter, Berlin, Germany

2008
Light
, Nina Menocal Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
Friends and Family
, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY
As Queer as a Clockwork Orange
, La Sala, Mexico City, Mexico

2007
Re-Make / Re-Model
, Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow The Kitchen Benefit Art Auction, New York, NY
Pase de Abordar: Artistas viajeros Contemporáneos. Universidad Iberoamericana, México City, Mexico
The Office
, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, NY
Drawing outside the lines
: Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Phoenix, AZ
OBJECTS
, Karma International Art Space, Zurich, Switzerland
In Apertura
, Vilma Gold, London, UK
Walk Real Slow
, Ana Helwig, Los Angeles, CA

2006
Solidarity Solitude
, Broadway 1602, New York, NY
Keep passing the open windows or Happiness
, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, Germany
Distor
, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico

2005
Begin, Began, Begun
, Other Gallery, The Banff Center, Alberta, Canada
Alegria
, El mono de la Tinta, Madrid, Spain

2002
Urban Tianguis
, Franz Meyer Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
Colección Monocroma
, Centro Convenciones Hipódromo de las Américas, Mexico City, Mexico

2001
One of so Many
, Young Artist Collective, Fundacion Sebastían, Mexico City, Mexico

Grants and Awards

2005
FONCA Grant for an International Artist Residency at the Banff Art Center, Alberta, Canada
Art Everywhere Grant, State Department of Cultural Projects in Mexico City, Mexico
Residency at the Banff Art Center, Alberta, Canada

2002
Selected to participate at the Bienale Internationale Desing Saint-Étinne, Saint-Étienne, France

2000
FONCA Scholarship for Artistic production, The tunnel of the millennium, Mexico Discipline, Installation,and Alternative Fashion, Mexico

1996
Member of the team accredited with the first place of the First Meeting of Arcitecture Students, ITESMcampus Queretaro., Queretaro, Mexico

Bibliography

2015
Brian Boucher, “Martin Soto Climent on Donald Trump,” Artnet News. September 17, 2015.
Brienne Walsh, “Martin Soto Climent, The Contemporary Comedy: Glossy Mist,” ArtReview, Vol 67, no 4, p158
Martha Schwendender, “10 Galleries to Visit in SoHo and TriBeCa,” The New York Times, April 16, pC32
“The Contemporary Comedy: Glossy Mist. Martin Soto Climent,” Cura Magazine, March 31
“Martin Soto Climent, The Contemporary Comedy: Glossy Mist,” TimeOut New York Critics’ Pick, March 17,
Paige Silbveria, “An Interview with Mexican Artist Martin Soto Climent At His Show ‘The Contemporary Comedy: Glossy Mist’ at Clifton Benevento, New York,” Purple Diary,  March 13

2014
Laura McLean-Ferris, “Martin Soto Climent. How small gestures can articulate bigger questions of sexuality and desire,” ArtReview, January & February, p100-105

2013
Steven Litt, “Saturday’s opening for ‘The Unicorn’ exhibition at the Transformer Station promises to be a surreal happening, like the show itself,” The Plain Dealer, September 3
Laura McLean-Ferris, “Notes on Neo-Camp, Office Baroque Gallery, Antwerp,” Frieze, Issue 155, May, p227
Brienne Walsh, “Martin Soto Climent at Clifton Benevento,” ArtReview, April p.140-141
“Martin Soto Climent’s ‘Mariposas Migratorias (Migratory Butterflies)’ at Clifton Benevento, New York,” Moussemagazine.it, March 7
“The Lookout: A Weekly Guide to Shows You Won’t Want to Miss,” Art in America online, February 7
Karen Rosenberg, “Martin Soto Climent: ‘Mariposas Migratorias (Migratory Butterflies),’” The New York Times online, January 31
Clara Halpern, “A Disagreeable Object,” Modern Painters, January, p68
“Martin Soto Climent, Clifton Benevento,” The New Yorker, January 18
Olivier Kielmayer, “Interview with Martin Soto Climent,” ARTPULSE.com, January 15
“Mariposas Migratorias. Martin Soto Climent,” Curamagazine. com, January 11

2012
Rapahel Gygax, “Martin Soto Climent, Karma International,” Frieze, November/December, Issue 155, p154
Colby Chamberlain, “A Disagreeable Object,” Artforum, December, p278
Karen Rosenberg, “‘A Disagreeable Object’ at the Sculpture Center,” The New York Times, October 4
Brain Boucher, “NADA Miami Beach: A Top Ten,” Art in America online, December 7
Chris Sharp, “Camp + Dandyism,” Kaleidoscope, Spring 2012, Issue 14, p. 44- 57
Julia Friedman, “economy of means: toward humility in contemporary sculpture,” Artforum.com, March 14
Will Brand, “The Glowing Ass Forest and Other Highlights from the Dependent Fair,” Art Fag City, March 14
Kevin McGarry, “Out There, Fair Games,” New York Times Magazine online, March 13
Andrew Russeth, “At Cleopatra’s, Seven Bottles of Wine for Martin Soto Climent,” Observer.com, March 9
Chris Sharp, “A Project By Martin Soto Climent,” Cura Magazine, No. 10, Winter Issue

2011
Erika P. Bucio, “Diseña Soto Premio Puma,” Reforma, Feb 16, p. 21
Ara H. Merjian, “Martin Soto Climent at Clifton Benevento,” Artforum, January p. 221-223

2010
Lori Cole, ‘Martin Soto Climent:  Clifton Benevento’, Artforum.com November 2010
Quinn Latimer., “While Bodies Get Mirrored: An Exhibition About Movement, Formalism and Space”, Artforum.com, April 2010
James Clegg, “Martin Soto Climent: A Long Chapter One”, ArtReview, May, p. 119
Dominic Paterson, “Martin Soto Climent:  Chapter One’, MAP magazine, Issue 22 – Summer, p. 44-49. (Cover)
Claire Barliant, ‘Not Extractions, but Abstractions’, Time Out New York, July 22-28. p. 40
Raphael Gygax, “Melodies & Rock / Copyright,” Flash Art, Jan-Feb

2009
‘Top 100 emerging artists’, Flash Art 268, October 2009
Valerie Knoll, “Martin Soto Climent: Karma International”, Artforum, issue Sept 09, p. 308
Gioni Massimiliano; Laura Hoptman; Lauren Cornell,“Younger than Jesus: The Artist Directory”, Phaidon Press, May 2009
Ruba Katrib, “The Reach of Realism, North Miami MOCA, December 2000
Stefanie Kreuzer, “Ordinary Revolutions”, Museum Morsbroich, August 2009

2008
F. Boenzi, “Martin Soto Climent”, Flash Art, Milan, issue 269, April – May
R. Caragliano, “L’economia del riciclo diventa un’opera d’arte”, La Repubblica, Napoli, 16 January
Jack Mottram, ”Performance’ that is anything but pants’, The Herald, 11th January
A. Vargas, ‘Pisaje suspendido: Bitacora de una mirada’, Laberinto

2007
Sue Wilson, ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’, The Metro, 19th December
Quinn Latimer, “Martin Soto Climent”, Modern Painters, New York, April

2006
J. Guarque, “Un Rato De Existencia”, Schock, December

2001
“Martin Soto Climent”, Babilonia Aula de Cultura, Apuntes Papeles par Mirar Collection, Valencia, October

Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts.  – Ezra Pound

Clifton Benevento is pleased to present its second solo exhibition of Mexico City based artist Martin Soto Climent.  Mariposas Migratorias (Migratory Butterflies) continues the artist’s investigation into the transformative potential of found and gently used material through a new body of sculptures comprised entirely of recycled automobile windshields.

Underscoring their repurposed status, their journey from raw material to completed artwork, the windshields often bear the markings of their prior utility, though Soto Climent is careful to maintain, if not highlight, the formal boundaries of his source objects. On the surface of Mariposa (Butterfly), for example, bold yellow and pink wax crayon markings – notes like ‘Geico,’ ‘Kia,’ and ‘sedan,’ – contrast with the green and blue hues of the windshield perimeter. Installed high on the wall, the colors in this piece become more legible than the notes they inscribe. Here, lines of text become lines of life. Here, color and form, material and gesture, suggest representations of the butterfly in flight.

While Mariposa suggests movement, additional works in the show use the manipulation of industrial materials to express a range of other moments. In Chrysalis, two windshields gently nestle together and lean against a wall, the natural curve of the glass bubbles outward, forming a slight belly, while in Enjambre de Mariposas (Swarm of the Butterflies) – a lotus spiral of 15 windshields that radiate outward – the glass cracks under weight and tension. By using a medium of rearticulated automotive materials and displacing the typical movements of the butterfly from nature to the galley, Soto Climent associates the fragility of glass with that of the butterfly and creates powerful suggestions about the beauty and finite nature of life. While firmly focused on the color, form and structural limitations inherent to his source material, the components of Soto Climent’s works in Mariposas Migratorias conjure associations with Arte Povera, Light and Space and Minimalism.  For Soto Climent, this offers a flexible, 21st century mode of working; the potential to collaborate in chorus as well as the freedom to come undone with or without the maker’s will.

Martin Soto Climent was born in Mexico City in 1977. Recent solo shows include The Equation of Desire, (Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland), I miss my thread, (Karma International, Switzerland), The Bright of the Whisper, (Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria), La Alcoba Doble, (T293, Italy) and Frenetic Gossamer, (Michael Benevento, Los Angeles). Recent group exhibitions include Sculpture Center (NY), Autocenter (Berlin), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, (AZ). In 2005 he received a grant for an international artist’s residency at The Banff Art Center and from 1996-2002 he studied Architecture and Design at The National University, Mexico. He lives and works in Mexico City.

Brienne Walsh, “Martin Soto Climent at Clifton Benevento”. ArtReview. April 2013, p.140-141.
PDF OF REVIEW

“The Lookout: A Weekly Guide to Shows You Won’t Want to Miss”. Art in America online. February 7, 2013.
PDF OF REVIEW

Karen Rosenberg, “Martin Soto Climent: ‘Mariposas Migratorias (Migratory Butterflies)’”. The New York Times online.  January 31, 2013.
PDF OF REVIEW

“Critic’s Pick: Martin Soto Climent, Clifton Benevento”. Time Out New York. January 24, 2013.
PDF OF REVIEW

“Martin Soto Climent, Clifton Benevento”. The New Yorker. January 18, 2013.
PDF OF REVIEW

“Mariposas Migratorias. Martin Soto Climent”. Curamagazine. com. January 11, 2013.
PDF OF REVIEW