Wk6 – Artist Conversation – SOSIA Group (Ren Torres)

Exhibition Information
Artist: SOSIA Group (interview with: Ren Torres)
Exhibition: Ai’sos’ Fables
Media: Illustration, Drawing and Painting
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Dutzi Gallery
Instagram: @sosia_csulb, @4cetone

About the Artist
This exhibition is actually a collaboration done by multiple artists from the Society of Student Illustrators and Animators (SOSIA). However, I decided to focus on a single artist from SOSIA that contributed to this project. This artist’s name is Ren Torres and he is currently an undergraduate student working towards his illustration BFA at CSULB. Ren has a strong passion for art and gets inspiration for his works from different interests outside of school. These interests include watching TV shows, anime, and video games!

Formal Analysis
All the art in this exhibition were nearly equal in size. The art was all done on multiple small canvases, one for each artist. Despite being similar in size, every single piece in this gallery was noticeably different and unique. Each artist had a distinctive art style and this was clearly seen in the myriad of different ways the character was portrayed. Some artists, like Ren Torres, had a more animation-esque style to their art as if their piece was a frame from a TV show. Other artists, like Christian Balbido, had canvases with amazing texture that alluded to the paint used to create it. Nonetheless, each composition used beautiful, vivid colors that seemingly contrasted the art pieces before it.

Content Analysis
Being a collaborative exhibition from a large group, there is a single idea that is shared between each piece. It is the idea that the main character, Ai’sos, is breaking out of her shell and building her confidence up. This is accomplished through the use of Ai’sos’s paintbrush which lets her create portals that span different worlds. Ai’sos uses this paintbrush to travel between worlds, making friends or conquering challenges throughout her journey. This idea of a magical, paintbrush-wielding character is a metaphor for the students that make up SOSIA. As a student organization for aspiring illustrators and animators, SOSIA hopes to empower its members with confidence like the character Ai’sos. Being a part of SOSIA means meeting new friends and conquering different career or personal challenges along the way. This exhibition is meant to showcase each member’s personal voice and style, allowing them to share their talents with the public and showing them that the process of displaying art publicly is not as intimidating as it seems.

Synthesis
I really like this exhibition because it was so fun looking at all the different art styles that each member brought to SOSIA. Ren Torres really let his love for TV shows and animation shine through his art. I also thought the idea of relating the main character in the different art pieces to its members was brilliant and really showed me that SOSIA wants to elevate its members and help them improve. I can see how creating an exhibition for your own art might seem like a daunting task and that doing an exhibition as a collective would be a great stepping stone for that! The lesson that this exhibition taught me was that each member of a group can shine in their own way and that you can be successful if you have the confidence and drive for it. SOSIA seems like a really good organization for any aspiring illustrator or animator because it gives them the resources and purpose to create their own works of art. It makes me wish that there was something like SOSIA for my major as I would love to be able to contribute to a collaborative project in the computer science field!