Enoc Perez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1967. He currently lives and works in New York. Known primarily for his multi-layered paintings of modernist buildings, throughout his twenty year career the artist has nevertheless engaged with a variety of subjects that appeal to him from voluptuous nudes to still lives of Don Q rum bottles.
Enoc Perez’s new photo collages engage with social media, appropriation, and the artist’s consistent and inventive search for new forms. Sourcing images from the internet of minimally dressed or nude women, from amateur selfies to more professional photos, Perez adds hand painted and cut collaged forms to both obscure and enhance the picture.
The cutout shapes function as censor's marks - thwarting our ability to see the original image in its entirety while making it all the more attention-grabbing and voyeuristic. At the same time the collaged bits make it into a happy game, playful colors and forms replacing a need for more visual information and reminding the audience of the artist’s role in directing and delivering fresh ways of seeing.
Enoc Perez’s work belongs to the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Art Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, among other significant institutions throughout the United States. The first complete monograph on his work was published by Assouline in 2013.