"Several years ago, I began experiencing a visual phenomenon whenever I was about to fall asleep; I would see images not presently fixed in real-time, in extreme detail, taking on the effect of a kaleidoscope. There wasn’t a source of gravity to orient me in such spaces. Or, maybe, my eyes became the pulling force. It was around the same time that my family moved to Canada that I began to consider how to orient myself when feelings of physical and visual instability arose.
My paintings are encounters. With them, I navigate slippages, double vision, and uncertainty within unfamiliar spaces. Through them, I ask: How can touch orient us when sight falters? How does architectural memory intersect with migration? How can one validate space through touch? How does understanding a familiar language inform entry into another?
Through painting, I forge atmospheres to exist within and make sense of the space around me - spaces with borders, voids, walls, patterns, and veils that ask to be touched to be made real. Consider a framing device, like a door inviting you in - wide open, but instead of a door, an ocular lens leading into my mind’s ability to digest." -Sofia Berger
Sofia Berger is a painter. In 2023, she completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Through painting, Sofia explores the limits of perception and the space between seeing and knowing. Her work has been exhibited at the RISD Museum (Rhode Island), Emeco House (Los Angeles), Brown University (Rhode Island), The Plumb (Toronto), Field Projects (New York), Artlab (London) and Gallery 263 (Boston). Her paintings have been featured by ArtMaze Magazine and The Hopper Prize. Sofia received the RISD Graduate Fellowship, was nominated for a Dedalus Fellowship, as well as being supported by the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council. She is the recipient of the Anderson Ranch Fellowship where she will be an artist-in-residence this fall.