The 75 Faubourg Gallery is pleased to present Under the Palm Trees, the second solo exhibition she is dedicating to Enoc Pérez, an artist native to Puerto Rico and living in New York.
«When I started painting rum bottles, I did it because for me they were self-portraits, still lifes, American pop art, and lies. Drinking rum never made me popular with women, rich or happy. That made me an alcoholic and yet I love these images. It looks like very similar to Stockholm syndrome.»
Enoc Pérez, September 2023.
Enoc Pérez's latest works were produced in the warm setting of Villa Navarra in Le Muy, in the South of France. In this exhibition, the artist plunges into the realm of commercial clichés, transcending them so that they become integral facets of our very identities.
The foundation of Pérez's thinking is based on a Puerto Rico deep within his being, but also on a vast documentary apparatus dating from the 1960s and gathering promotional content for his native island. This seminal material carries powerful connotations for both natives and foreigners, and Pérez masterfully transforms it into a singular form of artistic expression.
As in his beloved Puerto Rico, where the island's dreams and promises are fulfilled or not beneath the swaying palm trees, Pérez transports us to the sun-drenched south of France, where the allure of these imposing palms becomes a symbol of his identity. Whether these promises materialize or remain in the realm of imagination does not matter, for beneath the palm trees, dreams are carefully crafted to keep any inconvenient reality at bay.
In Pérez’s art, these clichés transform into a powerful representation of our collective identity. Just as in Puerto Rico, where commercial tourist images of beach resorts, luxury, sensuality, and spirits reflect a complex colonial history and contemporary existence, the artist’s work encourages us to embrace the multifaceted nature of our own identities.
Step into a world where Pérez's paintings of rum bottles are both classic still lifes and American pop art. With an elaborate and poignant touch, he explores the paradoxical appeal of these images. The promises underlying these rum advertisements have not made him popular, rich, or happy, but he loves them anyway and identifies them as his own. In a way, it is a journey akin to Stockholm syndrome, where the captive falls in love with their captor, but in this case, it is the seductive power of these commercial clichés that captivates our imagination.
Join us on this enchanting journey and discover how Enoc Pérez's art transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, revealing the profound connections between identity, memory, and the images that shape our lives.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in 1967 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Enoc Pérez lives and works in New York. A graduate of Pratt Institute and Hunter College, he paints nudes, still lifes, tropical hotels and icons of modernist architecture such as the Seagram Building and Lever House. Long based on a brushless transfer technique, his painting celebrates modernist utopia and the sensuality of color. Galerie 75 Faubourg has presented two solo shows of his work, in 2021 and 2023.
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