Sonya Blesofsky
Ornament continues artist Sonya Blesofsky's investigation of colonial architecture and historic building techniques, stemming from her interests in the changing nature of the built environment, the mutability of history, and how these concerns can serve as metaphors for memory, transition, and loss. On view from February 23rd through May 5th, 2023, in MA's Manhattan office, is a series of site-responsive installations created by Blesofsky, employing a virtually obsolete method of making in-situ decorative plaster mouldings.
The traditional method of run-in-place decorative plasterwork involves creating a handmade tool from sheet metal and wood called a jig, or mouldknife. Wet plaster is daubed onto a surface, and the mouldknife is pushed over the plaster to extrude an ornamental form. Today, this plasterworking technique is used primarily for restoration. The historic process allows Belsofsky to explore a language of memory and repair to create artwork that embodies the critical act of remembering in the present.
Sonya Blesofsky is an installation artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and BA from UC Santa Cruz. Blesofsky’s work has been shown in galleries throughout New York and the United States and reviewed in The Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and ArtForum. She was recently awarded a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and has received numerous residencies and fellowships, including the Urban Glass, Museum of Arts and Design, California Legion of Honor, Smack Mellon, Vermont Studio Center, Iaspis Konstnarsnamden, and MacDowell Colony.