EDRA SOTO: los ojos del viento (they eyes of the wind)

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is pleased to announce Edra Soto: los ojos del viento (the eyes of the wind), the Puerto Rican artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition is on view from March 14 to April 11, 2026. An opening reception will be held Saturday, March 14, 4:00–7:00 p.m.

The title los ojos del viento (“the eyes of the wind”) references both the etymology of “window” (from the Latin ventus, wind) and the metaphor of architectural openings as sites of observation, passage, and exchange. Throughout the exhibition, windows, screens, and thresholds operate as formal and conceptual devices—structures that frame vision while signaling movement, migration, and communication.

Central to the exhibition is Soto’s sustained engagement with Puerto Rican residential architecture, particularly the intricate wrought iron rejas that adorn homes across the archipelago. Decorative yet protective, these vernacular motifs serve as markers of the resilience of everyday people, coded histories of migration, colonization, and resistance. Soto’s sculptures evolve the visual language from her iconic GRAFT series of public and architectural interventions into intimate, wall-based forms.

In her new series, por la señal, Soto shifts from public to private, through the reinterpretation of the tabernacle—“the place of dwelling”—a devotional object that shaped her Catholic school upbringing. Transforming its ornate structure into a vessel for memory, she embeds photographic fragments from her personal archive—images of family memorabilia, residential facades, colonial architecture, and vernacular media—within viewfinders that activate the viewer’s role. By reclaiming the tabernacle as a site for lived experience rather than doctrine, Soto critically examines colonial indoctrination and reimagines sacred space as a repository for diasporic memory.

Additional works, including ocupantes / house holders, and ruta / route, extend Soto’s practice of repurposing fragments from past installations into new configurations. These sculptural compositions function as a living archive, tracing continuity across projects while reflecting on direction, displacement, and return. Meanwhile, Joy, joy, joy, joy / Rio, rio, rio, rio juxtaposes grief and levity, foregrounding humor as a strategy of endurance within histories marked by loss and resistance.

With los ojos del viento, Soto transforms architecture into both sanctuary and compass, illuminating Puerto Rican cultural memory while exposing the persistent threads of colonialism embedded within the United States and its territories. Working at the intersection of architectural language and social practice, Soto investigates the cultural afterlife of Spanish colonial military structures and their continued presence in Puerto Rico’s built environment, while also highlighting the island’s overlooked African and Caribbean influences. By elevating the decorative geometries of working-class homes—forms often excluded from dominant historical narratives—she offers counter-histories rooted in intimacy, sustainability, and community.