Victor Perez
June 10, 2019
Artist Victor Perez takes the digital age as a given in creating paintings that playfully riff on painting conventions and contemporary living. His work is rife with humor that often takes a snarky or sardonic tone. Even with minimal abstract paintings like Neon Algae and Tropical Depression he is able to comment on contemporary anxieties like ecological degradation and climate change. Victor is an artist well positioned to lead us into a hybridized digital-analog future.
Fool, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 2018
Ants at the Picnic (GTFO), acrylic on canvas, 2018
In Fool (2018) we see a pair of elongated cartoonish eyeballs squirting tears between a hazy spraypainted "F" and "L." The leaky disembodied eyeballs are a signal of visual consumption from which we can't turn away. Virtual living has become so dominated by sensational fools as targets of humor or ridicule that we don't pause to consider that maybe we are the fools for watching.
Leisure Flag, fabric collage, iron-on flocking, and iron-on vinyl on green screen backdrop cloth, 2017
Neon Algae, acrylic and fabric on canvas, 2016
Neon Algae (2016) is a coral color field with six horizontal green bands and a puffy neon green fabric wrapping the edges of the canvas. It gently upends the frontality of painting by using the edge as a focus. The greens of the painting look radioactive and the 'algae' appear straight from a laboratory. As a commentary of environmental collapse it is not overtly moralizing, but rather matter-of-fact.
Tropical Depression, acrylic on canvas, 2015
Died and Gone to Heaven, acrylic on canvas, 2016
Yardwork, acrylic on canvas, 2016
In Yardwork (2016) we see a checkered gray gridded background with a painted square of grass and a single curved green line. The green line circumscribes some arbitrary grass boundary while the grid reminds us of the artificiality of both grass and land development. The strangeness of the scene leads me to wonder if there is any virtual equivalent to the absurdity of manicured lawns.
Green Paintings, acrylic on canvas, paint swatches, inkjet on vinyl, 2016
Victor is currently based in NYC and is an MFA candidate at Hunter College. Follow along on Instagram @victorperezart
