Two and a half years in the making, Edra Soto's new sculpture Graft Knoxville, sited at the former Morrow’s Quarry (located on the western portion of the UTGA&EC), consists of three interrelated Corten steel bench and screen modules and includes three polished white marble benches, cut from an abandoned block from the quarry site. Soto’s sculpture incorporates the geometric designs of iron Rejas screens popular throughout her native Puerto Rico.

Edra Soto’s internationally recognized work is transformative. Her use of the Rejas form is at once expansive and personal in scale. Throughout the course of her work, Soto has engaged the public through many architectural interventions. For Graft Knoxville, she responded to the rolling topography of the sculpture site with a work that anticipates visitors and offers a space of contemplative rest. Throughout the design and fabrication process, UTK Sculpture facilitated many aspects of the project with the artist Edra Soto. Sculpture students in several different classes met with the artist multiple times in person and on zoom throughout two years to talk about the design.

Curated by Brian R. Jobe, Tri-Star Arts with the Assistance of the UT School of Art.

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