Last month, Pace Gallery parted ways with contemporary-art darling Sterling Ruby. Now, ARTINFO can report that it has picked a new rising star: Bosco Sodi, a 42-year-old Mexico City-born painter known for abstract, almost alchemical, paintings. Pace, one of the world's most powerful galleries, is known for its classy stable of legendary figures like Chuck Close and Richard Tuttle. The decision to pick up Sodi represents director Marc Glimcher's ongoing mission to boost its roster of cutting-edge contemporary art. 

Sodi is not exactly a mega-star yet, but you can bet that you will be hearing more from him. His vast canvasses are both spectacular and have a classical gravity, caking layers of pigment, sawdust, and natural fibers together to create a texture reminiscent of scorched earth. He also deliberately incorporates matter from whatever locality he happens to be at when working, lending his abstraction a site-specific twist.

The Mexican artist was first introduced to American audiences at a solo presentation at the Bronx Museum in 2010, where his massive, 40-foot-across painting "Pangea" caught Glimcher's eye. This led to a solo show at Pace last December. When the artist's monochromatic blue, pink, and inky black canvases sold out, the gallery decided to bring him on board for exclusive New York representation. In at least one sense, Sodi has a sensibility that will be right at home at Pace: Two of his major influences, Jean Dubuffet and the late Antoni Tapies, are also Pace artists.