Sonya Blesofsky received an MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art
Institute, and BA from UC Santa Cruz. Sonya’s work has been exhibited in numerous
galleries in San Francisco including Pond, Mission 17 and Crucible Steel
Gallery, and most recently, in GenArt SF’s annual juried exhibition,
Emerge. Sonya was the November 2005 Artist in Residence at the California
Palace of the Legion of Honor. Born in Boston, Massachusetts; she lives
in New York City.
Name: Sonya Blesofsky Where are you from: California Where do you live/work: Brooklyn, NY Your website (if any):www.sonyablesofsky.com
How do you normally come up with an idea or project for your artwork?
Can you run us briefly through your thought process and work process?
The work comes directly from an experience I have while in transit in
the city – something absurd at a construction site, a decaying I-beam
in a subway station, watching a new foundation being poured. I often
comb through an encyclopedia of construction terms to draw connections
between the language, the imagery and the metaphors I am working with. I
also read urban theorists and take lots of photos – then I wing it.
How has this specific site of Lower Manhattan influenced and/or
made its way into your works?
The amount of construction that is going on in this area – high-rise
office buildings being turned into condos, new subway exits, façade
work, foundation retrofitting – is incredible. The gashes in
the landscape continually alarm and excite me and provide source material
for new work.
Who or what influences and inspires you?
Recently, the work of Nancy Rubins, Rachel Whiteread, Jason Rhoades, Gordon
Matta Clark, Christina Iglesias, Tom Friedman, the writings of Paul Virilio,
M. Christine Boyer and Barry Curtis, ruins, walks in the city, my bike,
being surrounded by artists, the former WTC site, that old PBS TV show “Connections,” the
free chocolate I get with my coffee at the café downstairs.
I can check on any major construction project in the world and get links
to the project’s site, I can virtually tour Broadway from W. 50th
St. to Bowling Green, and I can click on any lower Manhattan construction
site and know what the hell is going on.
