Sofía Maldonado

This Side of Paradise

Sofia Maldonado has painted a site-specific mural in the kitchen to breathe new life into this section of the building. The painting reveals her urban sensibility and is inspired by aspects of pop art and modern design. A highly stylized-minimalist cast of cloud-like forms in remembrance of the Caribbean sunsets often populates her pop-abstract murals installations. Here, a huge fancy female cook observes the kitchen and its visitors from above, offering a new point of view of an industrial kitchen and inviting the people that work on it to consider it as a living environment. Clouds, spots and wings made of bright and flashy colors add a taste of Maldonado’s world to this working space.

The mural is one part of Maldonado’s larger project, La Cocina. which will educate and bring together the community members through Latin- cuisine, with a healthy vegetarian twist in traditional and cultural dishes. The project will feature a live cooking workshop, bringing art from outside to inside and involving the whole community.

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Whole Foods for sponsoring the cooking workshop and enthusiastic support from Laurie. M Tisch Illumination Fund, Kar Resources and Fifty Egg Films.