Sono Osato

Diluvia

March 22–May 20, 2023

Diluvia 1, 2021

Diluvia 1, 2021; triptych, 30×72 inches

Diluvia #4, 2022

Diluvia #4, 2022; 48×48 inches

Diluvia Study #12, 2021

Diluvia Study #12, 2021; 6-1/2×4-1/4 inches

Diluvia #2, 2023

Diluvia #2, 2023; triptych, 10×24 inches

Diluvia Study #13, 2021

Diluvia Study #13, 2021; 6-1/2×4-1/4 inches

Diluvia Study #14, 2021

Diluvia Study #14, 2021; 11-1/2×8-1/4 inches

Diluvia Study #16, 2021

Diluvia Study #16, 2021; 24×19 inches

Diluvia Study #17, 2021

Diluvia Study #17, 2021; 24×19 inches

Diluvia Study #18, 2021

Diluvia Study #18, 2021; 24×19 inches

Mawja, 2017

Mawja, 2017; 30×24 inches

Umma, 2009

Umma, 2009; triptych, 14×36 inches

Gubo, 2017

Gubo, 2017; triptych, 10×30 inches

Brian Gross Fine Art is pleased to present Diluvia, an online exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Austin-based artist Sono Osato from March 22–May 20, 2023. Rendered in tinted rabbit skin glue, oil paint, and graphite, the mixed media works in Diluvia reveal Osato’s continued exploration of the intersections of language, technology, and time through the metaphor of floodwaters disinterring the past.

Long fascinated by the impact of terrain on the evolution of visual languages and the need to dig into the ground to reveal histories, Sono Osato’s new paintings and drawings continue her journey through layers of our technological past. Mining parts from remnants of the mechanical age and the not too distant digital past, Osato recontextualizes these forms and layers their silhouettes to create dynamic abstractions that recall the strata of artifacts found within an archeological dig. In earlier works, the surfaces of Osato’s paintings were heavily encrusted with impasto and objects. In the Diluvia Series, renderings alluding of these objects predominate and float within smooth paint layers as if they were being washed away by eroding floodwaters, their palimpsests dissolving as they recede into pictorial space.

In her drawings, Osato captures these effects in evocative gradations of graphite pencil, while varying the density of her compositions between works. Combining layered forms and rhythmic linear movement, Osato’s works embody the integration of the past with the formal rigors of abstraction and assemblage.

Sono Osato was born in Baden-Baden, Germany. She received her BFA from Arizona State University, Tempe, and her MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA), Oakland. Osato’s work has been featured in exhibitions throughout the Bay Area and New York, including the San Jose Museum of Art; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; ISE Foundation, New York, NY; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Shore Institute for Contemporary Art, Long Branch, NJ; and the Dumbo Arts Center (DAC), Brooklyn, NY, among others. Her work can be found in the collections of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; Oakland Museum of California; di Rosa, Napa, CA; and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH. Sono Osato has been the recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants in 1989, 1999, and 2008. She currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.