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SoiL Thornton (b. 1990) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. They graduated from Cooper Union in 2012. Recent solo institutional exhibitions include Choosing Suitor, Secession, Vienna, Austria (2023); Decomposition Evaluation, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany (2022); and Sir Veil, Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2016). Recent institutional group exhibitions include Beyond the Surface: Collage, Mixed Media and Textile Works from the Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2022); Pooky’s Reform, Fri-Art, Kunsthalle Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland (2022); Niloufar Emamifar, SoiL Thornton, and an Oral History of Knobkerry, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY (2021); Sustainable Museum: Practical Action Plans, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, South Korea (2021); Dirty Protest: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2019); Crossroads: Carnegie Museum of Art’s Collection, 1945 to Now, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA (2018); and Whitney Biennial 2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2017).

Thornton’s work is in the permanent collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; The CIFO Collection, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago, IL; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others.

Artworks

SoiL Thornton
Bench/barrier (314 lbs), 2021
Aluminum foil and aluminum foil tape compressed
to the combined weight of momma and deddy
29 x 25 x 16 inches
(73.7 x 63.5 x 40.6 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Morán Morán

SoiL Thornton
Who’s teaching to hang dry? (All rights and 1 left, intro to seven deadly sins), 2020
Designer garment hangers, Swedish cycling thermal and rain booties of neoprene Polyurethane and Kevlar
14 x 172 x 4 inches
(35.6 x 436.9 x 10.2 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

SoiL Thornton
(How literal you want me? Dirt’s foundational and socially homogeneous overlap, which mirrors all skins, sampled, which also appear as topographical tea perspectives, with twister as a social teacher and presenter of various discomforts depending your space) (eg: my one hyper key as appetizer), 2019
Acrylic paint, graphite, and found wood on panel
96 x 141 x 2.5 inches
(243.8 x 358.1 x 6.3 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Torey Thornton
What Angel Do You Look Towards When You Are Damning Your Tears, Sweet Sis, 2016
Acrylic paint, corrugated plastic, collage, wood, graphite, and nail polish on wood panel
79 x 64 inches
(201 x 162.5 cm)
Photograph by Cooper Dodds

Torey Thornton
Coagulated Foundation Tucked Into Petri, Night Night (current)(bar code), 2018
Acrylic paint, spray paint, and glue on wood panel
76 x 134 inches
(193 x 340.5 cm)
Photograph by Cooper Dodds

Torey Thornton
The Rest (Cabbie), 2016
Wood, plexiglass, aluminum, wire basket, galvanized steel mending plates, ceramic wooden and metal mugs and vessels
100.75 x 33.75 x 24.25 inches
(256 x 86 x 61.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Torey Thornton
Positive Reinforcements, Which Boundaries Do We See, Does Slim Jim Sound Less Sexist Than Slim Jane, 2017
Acrylic paint, yarn, glue, and wood on wood panel
96 x 90 x 3 inches
(244 x 228.5 x 7.5 cm)
Photograph by Joshua White

Torey Thornton
Seeing Red, Almost NY (frozen follicle demonstration, A view), 2016-17
Acrylic paint on wood panel
64 x 58 x 2 inches
(162.5 x 147 x 5 cm)
Photograph by Joshua White

Torey Thornton
Creative Asphyxia, Intellectual Asphyxia, Romantic Asphyxia, 2017
Acrylic paint and spray paint on wood panel
85.5 x 96.56 x 2 inches
(217 x 245 x 5 cm)
Photograph by Joshua White

Torey Thornton
Painting, 2017
Found painted rock (Waring Ave and El Centro, LA), found painted rock (Marcy and Park Ave, NY), found painted rock (Flushing Ave and 54 Pl, NY) found painted rock (Van Wyck Expy and 106 Ave, NY), found painted rock (Etsy), found painted rock (Etsy), found painted rock (N Avenue 52 and Lincoln Ave, LA), found painted rock (Maya’s Westbeth gift, NY), found painted rock (Stanton and Norfolk, NY), and hardware on steel saw blade
104 inches diameter
(264 cm diameter)
Photograph by Cooper Dodds

Torey Thornton
Breaking Some Rules For Momma, (Theresa), 2014
Acrylic, metallic paint, wood, and collage on wood slatted panel
96 x 82 inches
(244 x 208.5 cm)
Photograph by Joshua White

Torey Thornton
Ak47, Pie, Tilted Shade And Lung, 2015
Acrylic paint, spray paint, and galvanized steel on wood panel
96 x 90 inches
(244 x 228.5 cm)
Photograph by Cooper Dodds

Torey Thornton
Untitled Political Aliens (Top Fifty U.S. Babies 2018 Gender Mashed To Make My New), 2018
Acrylic paint, sharpie, and graphite on cardboard
124 x 93.25 inches
(315 x 237 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán