Like many people, artist Enoc Perez has spent a number of time scrolling by way of Instagram prior to now 12 months. “I don’t know if I’m addicted to Instagram; I like looking at it a lot because there’s so many good images,” he says. “I’m an image hoarder.”
He’s put the hoarding to good use, plucking photos from his assortment and filtering them by way of his artwork observe to make sense of the chaos. Perez collects photos from social media sources like Instagram and Twitter, and reinterprets the themes by drawing them, usually collaging disparate imagery into the identical piece. A collection of his latest works are on view within the solo exhibition “Recent Drawings,” which opens at Skarstedt gallery in East Hampton on May 27.
“I throw drawings together in an effort to understand what I’m living through or what I’m looking at,” says Perez. “It’s a path to think about things, and as a visual artist to try to put down what I cannot describe with words,” he provides. “To find poetry in everyday life and to also look at what’s scary about the world we’re in.”
His drawings embrace the scenic view from an airplane window, automobiles and pop iconography; Perez thinks of tradition’s greatest celebrities as dwelling symbols of society. Viewers will acknowledge acquainted personalities depicted in his drawings — Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus — and Perez contains contextual clues to the supply of his imagery by together with hashtags and “like” counts. His Miley Cyrus drawing started with an Instagram put up of the singer consuming a banana, which he seen was favored by none apart from New York Times artwork critic Roberta Smith.
“Roberta Smith, who’s probably one of the greatest art critics, in this time she’s also looking at someone like Miley Cyrus, like as I was. It makes me feel like I’m part of a bigger world,” says Perez, who added hen imagery and a T-shirt slogan he noticed somebody carrying on the grocery retailer — “Hell Is Other People” — into the piece.
Enoc Perez, “Untitled (other people).”
Courtesy
Perez splits his time between his studios in Astoria and East Hampton, though he spent nearly all of the pandemic understanding east. He has two younger sons, and located himself most efficient at evening, when everybody else had gone to sleep. “It took me back to my student years, because I used to work at night when I was in my early twenties,” he says, including that the restrictions additionally pushed him to give attention to smaller-scale tasks. “So that was kind of refreshing for me.”
Memorial Day Weekend can be the final likelihood to take a look at his solo exhibition “Paradise” at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The present, which closes on May 31, explores the devastating impact of latest pure disasters in Puerto Rico. The works are additionally an investigation into his personal identification, and the way its been affected by xenophobia lately. Several works within the present (and on view at Skarstedt) are primarily based on a T-shirt design, with the picture replicated time and again on high of itself.
“It’s about how much paint I can throw on that canvas and keep an image that is legible,” says Perez. “And it’s the same for what’s happened with my identity as a Puerto Rican American. How much can you take and keep yourself legible in one piece?”
Enoc Perez, “Untitled (black-pink-brown).”
Courtesy
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