Ben Brown Fine Arts is delighted to present More Than This, the first solo exhibition of Puerto Rican-American artist Enoc Perez to be held at the Hong Kong gallery, taking place between 7 September – 13 October 2021. Comprising oil paintings, this largely new body of work is reflective of Perez’s deep interest in architectural spaces, a signature and ongoing source of inspiration within his art.
Featuring classic architectural works and striking modern interiors, the works in this exhibition explore the metaphorical significance of architectural spaces all over the world - particularly poignant at a time when we have been so confined and limited to our own personal spaces. Widely travelled and based in New York, Perez’s imagination is as much stimulated by international landmarks as by the modernist skyscrapers of his home city. From their aesthetic and conceptual importance to their relationship with popular culture, Perez upholds each of these buildings and interiors as physical emblems of historic and cultural moments – often representative of utopian social ideals.
These themes and ideas are exemplified by large-scale works such as Grand Lisboa (2017), in which Perez presents an almost anthropomorphic rendering of the iconic landmark Macau hotel and casino. His painting captures the exuberant excesses of modern city life as epitomised by this towering, other-worldly structure, exploring the collective identity that these architectural structures imply. Other works such as the pastel brilliance of San Angel Inn (2020) explore the relationship between its architecture and natural environment, while in La Grande Motte (2020) Perez’s focus on form and colour highlights the futuristic geometry of Jean Balladur’s design. By representing these structures as paintings on the canvas, Perez celebrates them as works of art, and encourages us to contemplate them in the same way.
This integral relationship between art and architecture is also highlighted in Perez’s series of studio and home interiors. The colourful hues of Georg Baselitz Studio (2021) – the largest work on show in this exhibition – considers the space as much of an artwork as the canvas on display within it. Elsewhere, in works such as Casa Sachs, Roma (2021), Perez draws attention to the furnishings and decorative objects that occupy these spaces. Such paintings ponder the relationship between architecture and the wider creative cultural sphere, from design to music – reflected in the exhibition’s title, a reference to the 1982 track by English rock band Roxy Music.
Finally, the exhibition also presents a new grouping of Perez’s palm tree paintings inspired by the landscape of his native country and his own mind. Characteristic of Perez’s vibrant palette, these sunset-silhouetted forms offer a colourful celebration of the natural world – one that stands in contrast with the manmade structures in the rest of the exhibition, casting them in a new light. The result is a body of work that interrogates the boundary between nature and culture, interior and exterior, architecture and art.
Image: Enoc Perez, Casa Sachs, Roma, 2021, oil on canvas, 152.4 x 152.4 cm; (60 x 60 in.)
ABOUT ENOC PEREZ
Enoc Perez is a critically acclaimed multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York. The artist moved to New York in 1986 where he completed a B.F.A. at Pratt Institute and then received an M.F.A. in Fine Art from Hunter College. Perez's artworks sit in the collections of major museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The British Museum, London; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; New York Public Library; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Perez has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Dallas Contemporary, Dallas in 2018; UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles in 2017; and at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami in 2007. He has featured in important group exhibitions internationally including Dimensions Variables at Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Paris in 2015; City Self at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago in 2013; Caribbean: Crossroads of the World at The Studio Museum in Harlem, Queens Museum of Art, and El Museo del Barrio, New York; The Undiscovered Country at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles in 2004; and Dear Painter, paint me… at Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2002.
ABOUT BEN BROWN FINE ARTS
In 2004, Ben Brown Fine Arts opened its first location in the heart of Mayfair, London. The gallery quickly established itself on the international art scene with exhibitions of long-term gallery artists Candida Höfer, Tony Bevan, Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne, and Heinz Mack, amongst others, as well as momentous exhibitions of 20th century masters including Lucio Fontana, Alighiero Boetti and Gerhard Richter. In 2009, Ben Brown Fine Arts opened an exhibition space in Hong Kong, becoming the first international gallery to move to the city that would soon become a major international art hub. In Hong Kong, the gallery introduced notable exhibitions of Pablo Picasso, Sean Scully, Frank Auerbach and Miquel Barceló, as well as survey exhibitions of Chinese contemporary photography, the Düsseldorf School of Photography, 20th century Italian art, and the ZERO movement.
In 2021, Ben Brown Fine Arts opened a third location in Palm Beach with an inaugural exhibition celebrating the legacy of American and European 20th century artists who developed a radical approach to making art, among them Alexander Calder, Georg Baselitz and Andy Warhol. The galleries regularly exhibit and develop programming for our renowned stable of international, multi-disciplinarian artists, including the aforementioned as well as Yoan Capote, Rob and Nick Carter, Kitty Chou, Awol Erizku, Nabil Nahas, José Parlá, Enoc Perez, Ena Swansea, Hank Willis Thomas, Gavin Turk and Jan Worst. The gallery is recognized for its depth of expertise and inventory in 20th century European and American art. Ben Brown Fine Arts participates in major art fairs worldwide, including Art Basel, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, The Armory Show, Frieze Masters, TEFAF Maastricht, TEFAF New York and West Bund Art & Design.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS AND IMAGES
Katy Wickremesinghe at KTW – [email protected] / 07717 733 891
Tani Burns at KTW London – [email protected] / 07888 731 419
Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong
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Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong
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