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IRMA SOFIA POETER
(b. Arcadia (CA), USA. Lives and works in Tecate, Mexico and San Diego, California.)
Irma Sofía Poeter is a Mexican American artist who has lived on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border. Born in Arcadia, California, in 1963, she currently works and lives in Tecate, Mexico and San Diego, California. Irma Sofía Poeter is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. She began her career as a painter in 1993 and later ventured into sculpture and installation, working primarily with fabrics and textiles.
Selected solo exhibitions include: the National Museum of Art, Mexico City, Mexico (2022); Building Bridges, Santa Monica, California, USA (2022); Bread and Salt, San Diego, California, USA (2022, 2018); The Front Arte Cultura, San Ysidro, California, USA (2019); CECUT – Tijuana Cultural Center, Tijuana, Mexico (2019, 2001); Lagos, Mexico City, Mexico (2018); MIDAC – Museo Internazionale Dinamico di Arte Contemporanea, Belforte Del Chienti, Italy (2017); La Caja Gallery, Tijuana, Mexico (2016); Casa Valencia Gallery, San Diego, California, USA (2014); Textile Museum of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico (2009); Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City, Mexico (2004); Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana, Mexico (2002); Jardín de las Esculturas, Jalapa, Veracruz, México (2020).
She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including: La Jolla Historical Society, La Jolla California, USA (2023); La Tertulia Museum, Cali, Colombia (2022); Museo Kaluz, Mexico City, Mexico (2022); Tijuana Trienal, CECUT, Tijuana, Mexico (2021); Art Biennale of Baja California, CEART Tecate, Mexico (2021); Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, California, USA (2020); Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, California, USA (2020); Escondido Center for the Arts, Escondido, California, USA (2019); San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, California, USA (2017); SDVAN San Diego Art Prize, Atheneaum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, California, USA (2017); La Caja Gallery, Tijuana, Mexico (2016); Barge House, Oxo Tower, London, UK (2015); CECUT, Tijuana, Mexico (2011); Banner Biennale (Bienal de Estandartes), CECUT, Tijuana, Mexico (2010, 2002); Viva México, Zacheta National Art Gallery, Poland (2007); Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK (2006); Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington DC, USA (2005); XII Salon de Arte Bancomer, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, Mexico (2003); Seventh Havana Biennial, Cuba (2000).
Sitting Pretty
2021, Part of the series New Man: A Woman’s Gaze, Fabric and lace appliqué on vintage Easter European embroidered napkins
Current times necessitate a radical paradigm shift. The Western neoliberal heteropatriarchy, and the extractivist logic that grew along with it have demonstrated throughout history that this framework of power has reified a universal in which masculinity occupies a pre-eminent status within society.
Sherry B. Ortner, an anthropologist, explains there is a whole series of valuations that have culturally manipulated the world, placing women, their functions, their tasks, their products and their social media in a place of inferiority, in relation to that of men. Feminism has mobilized in response to gender inequality and gendered violence–all of which stems from heteronormative, patriarchal values.
But what about men? What role do men play in reconfiguring this system? Addressing the problem from another perspective, Irma Sofía Poeter explores, through the series NEW MAN, the possibility of deconstructing hegemonic masculinity, and opts for alternative masculinities in which ways of being and existing in the world stand out differently. Sensitive men, with soft bodies and textures; men in harmony with nature; men clad in floral and lace textiles; men whose sexual organs are not the center of attention; men who are passive and reflective; men who live together without competing; men aware of their sensuality; men, in short, who through Poeter’s symbolic devices blur the violent generic binarism and open the way to the existence of a new man.
– Adriana Martinez Noriega
I am a multidisciplinary artist who works with textile in all its forms, that is, fabric, garments, embroidery and woven materials. Textile, a manufactured material that protects, gives form and defines social, cultural and economic standards, is for me a universal language given its strong ties to the whole human condition. Dyed, decomposed, embroidered or reconfigured, textiles accentuate marks of trauma and detonate individual, family and collective memories that enable me to address identity, memory, gender, spirit and energy issues.
The act of constructing is evident in my artistic production since most of the fabrics I use are acquired, recycled or commissioned, and with them I create assemblages and collages that sometimes incorporate painting and photography. My art, immersed as it is in the poetics of textile matter, depends strongly on texture, color, pattern and shape, as well as on the social, historical, and geographical references they confer.
My work is deeply rooted in the revaluation of sewing as a high art. Traditionally pondered as a womanly activity, the act of sewing has been long considered a domestic task, a craft and, therefore, a lesser form of art. Hence, resorting to this “minor” language, I try to discover, emphasize, and balance the feminine that exists in each of us in order to raise it to the level it deserves. Given the patriarchal system in which we live, through my art I stress the importance of the feminine to achieve the balance, harmony, and equilibrium that will allow us to create a free, comprehensive, and equitable world.
During my stay in Oaxaca, 2008-2009, I worked under the name of Eduardo Poeter. This nickname is part of an ongoing piece where I question not transgender issues, but the ways we name the things that surround us.
– Irma Sofía Poeter