Enoc Perez
06 Dec 2007 - 22 Mar 2008
© Enoc Perez
Seagram Building, New York, 2006, After photograph by Ezra Stoller
Oil on canvas,
106 x 88 in, Collection of MOCA, North Miami. Museum purchase with funds provided
by Peter and Jody Robbins, Braman Family Foundation and POP 007
Seagram Building, New York, 2006, After photograph by Ezra Stoller
Oil on canvas,
106 x 88 in, Collection of MOCA, North Miami. Museum purchase with funds provided
by Peter and Jody Robbins, Braman Family Foundation and POP 007
ENOC PEREZ
December 6, 2007 – March 22, 2008
The Museum of Contemporary Art will feature the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of works by Enoc Perez from December 6, 2007 – March 22, 2008 at its satellite gallery, MOCA at Goldman Warehouse, 404 NW 26th Street, in the Wynwood area of Miami. Perez uses a complex painting process to create evocative portraits, tropical still lifes and renderings of modernist architectural icons. Thirty-five of his major canvases from 2000 to the present will be on view, along with a selection of new works on paper Perez created especially for the exhibition.
Enoc Perez is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and is curated by MOCA Executive Director and Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1967, Enoc Perez is the son of a prominent art critic, and as a result was well versed in art history and modern art as a youth. When he arrived in New York in 1986, he aimed to perpetuate the progress of painting as defined by Modernism, taking Warhol as a key figure to study.
Beginning with a photograph, Perez transfers it onto canvas by redrawing it with a pencil. Mimicking the four-color printing process, he visually separates the colors from his photographic source and makes multiple identical drawings of his subject in each color. He then applies a single color of paint to the reverse of the drawing and attaches it to the top of the canvas so that the paint faces its surface and transfers the pigment by tracing on the drawing that correspond to the color of the image. The process is repeated for each color until the painting is complete. This complex technique creates the rich texture of painting without the use of a brush.
Perez’s paintings of famous New York modernist skyscrapers hauntingly evoke a mid-century optimism that vanished after 9/11. Despite their representational images, these canvases also function as abstractions in which the artist indulges in the process of painting. Landmarks such as Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, Le Courbusier’s United Nations building, and Eero Saarinen’s futuristic TWA terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport reflect the utopian ideal of internationalism. The buildings are Perez’s counterpart to Warhol’s similarly iconic Marilyn Monroe paintings and his repetition of the Seagram building in two canvases echoes Warhol’s technique of serial imagery. In his commission for the Lever House in 2007, he painted five paintings of the building’s façade based on photograph he shot. The modern classic is positioned so that two sides of the building are visible. Two of the canvases capture the light on the building at different times of day, producing a study of color and atmosphere reminiscent of Monet’s painting cycle of Rouen Cathedral.
Enoc Perez’s paintings of tropical resorts represent a bygone time of innocence and luxurious indulgence in which the buildings retain their original splendor despite the fact that several have long been demolished or transformed over the years.
Perez’s portraits date from the 1990s. After requesting permission, Perez would collect snapshots of women, who, though desirable, remained out of reach. In most cases, it was impossible to photograph the women without including their male companions, but in his painting Perez would edit them out, occasionally leaving an arm or hand connected to the woman as evidence of her inaccessibility.
Enoc Perez lives and works in New York. He received his M.F.A. from Hunter College and B.F.A. from Pratt, both in New York.
Enoc Perez is made possible in part by Four Seasons Ocean Residences and proceeds from Mystery Dates 2007.
December 6, 2007 – March 22, 2008
The Museum of Contemporary Art will feature the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of works by Enoc Perez from December 6, 2007 – March 22, 2008 at its satellite gallery, MOCA at Goldman Warehouse, 404 NW 26th Street, in the Wynwood area of Miami. Perez uses a complex painting process to create evocative portraits, tropical still lifes and renderings of modernist architectural icons. Thirty-five of his major canvases from 2000 to the present will be on view, along with a selection of new works on paper Perez created especially for the exhibition.
Enoc Perez is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and is curated by MOCA Executive Director and Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1967, Enoc Perez is the son of a prominent art critic, and as a result was well versed in art history and modern art as a youth. When he arrived in New York in 1986, he aimed to perpetuate the progress of painting as defined by Modernism, taking Warhol as a key figure to study.
Beginning with a photograph, Perez transfers it onto canvas by redrawing it with a pencil. Mimicking the four-color printing process, he visually separates the colors from his photographic source and makes multiple identical drawings of his subject in each color. He then applies a single color of paint to the reverse of the drawing and attaches it to the top of the canvas so that the paint faces its surface and transfers the pigment by tracing on the drawing that correspond to the color of the image. The process is repeated for each color until the painting is complete. This complex technique creates the rich texture of painting without the use of a brush.
Perez’s paintings of famous New York modernist skyscrapers hauntingly evoke a mid-century optimism that vanished after 9/11. Despite their representational images, these canvases also function as abstractions in which the artist indulges in the process of painting. Landmarks such as Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, Le Courbusier’s United Nations building, and Eero Saarinen’s futuristic TWA terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport reflect the utopian ideal of internationalism. The buildings are Perez’s counterpart to Warhol’s similarly iconic Marilyn Monroe paintings and his repetition of the Seagram building in two canvases echoes Warhol’s technique of serial imagery. In his commission for the Lever House in 2007, he painted five paintings of the building’s façade based on photograph he shot. The modern classic is positioned so that two sides of the building are visible. Two of the canvases capture the light on the building at different times of day, producing a study of color and atmosphere reminiscent of Monet’s painting cycle of Rouen Cathedral.
Enoc Perez’s paintings of tropical resorts represent a bygone time of innocence and luxurious indulgence in which the buildings retain their original splendor despite the fact that several have long been demolished or transformed over the years.
Perez’s portraits date from the 1990s. After requesting permission, Perez would collect snapshots of women, who, though desirable, remained out of reach. In most cases, it was impossible to photograph the women without including their male companions, but in his painting Perez would edit them out, occasionally leaving an arm or hand connected to the woman as evidence of her inaccessibility.
Enoc Perez lives and works in New York. He received his M.F.A. from Hunter College and B.F.A. from Pratt, both in New York.
Enoc Perez is made possible in part by Four Seasons Ocean Residences and proceeds from Mystery Dates 2007.