Jeff Soto :: Shadow

KP Projects is honored to present a new body of work by Jeff Soto, titled Shadow, marking a pivotal moment in the artist’s evolving practice. Known for his vivid palette, surreal iconography, and evocative narratives, Soto continues to merge elements of personal mythology, street culture, and natural symbolism.

The exhibition introduces works that span large-scale multi-panel paintings to intimate studies on wood. Through his use of layered acrylics and oils, Soto creates dreamlike worlds that speak to cycles of decay and renewal, the passage of time, and the coexistence of beauty and fragility.

With Shadow, the artist explores the tradition of still painting to reflect on our turbulent present and the lingering weight of the past.

"Following my 2023 exhibition Sadlands, which explored technology and the future through landscape, Shadow moves indoors and looks inward with still lifes, one of painting’s oldest genres. Everyday objects, taxidermy, cacti and houseplants, along with artifacts from analog culture, books, records, and polaroid pictures, are reimagined as vessels of memory and meaning. Some items are based on reality, others imagined entirely. Each painting is a kind of time capsule, balancing presence and loss.

Unlike the symbols of wealth often found in historical still life paintings (goblets, jewels, exotic fruits), these works embrace the ordinary and the ghostly. They call back to the things that shaped my generation, the media that imprinted on us, the objects we live with daily, and the shadows of experiences and people long past.

Still life painting has always fascinated me; I teach painting, and I’ve spent years setting up still lifes for students. I enjoy the play of light and shadow, texture and color. These are objects that tell my narrative while hopefully leaving space for viewers to find their own. The works ask viewers to slow down, sit with details, and find their own stories contained in each object.

The title Shadow carries multiple meanings. Shadows are obscure, but they also give form through light. They speak to absence as well as presence. In the paintings, shadow becomes metaphor for the uncertainty of our times, for memory itself, and for the way history lives in the objects we keep.”

- Jeff Soto