Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present The Land of In-Between, a solo exhi­bi­tion of new works by artist Emilio Perez. This exhi­bi­tion, com­posed of large-scale paint­ings pro­duced over the past year, explores the artists’ con­nec­tion with the trop­i­cal land­scape. Perez’s paint­ings exem­pli­fy the dynam­ic forces of nature and lead the view­er through unfold­ing nar­ra­tives of fic­tion­al, inti­mate, and emo­tion­al places.

In the pri­ma­ry gallery, Perez’s paint­ings envel­op the view­er in cav­ernous ter­rains, flow­ing streams, and lush foliage. Organ­ic, oscil­lat­ing shapes swirl into con­fig­ured com­po­si­tions ren­dered in moody hues of robust pur­ples, fiery reds, icy blues, and almost flu­o­res­cent greens. These envi­ron­ments evoke an escape from real­i­ty, a place of pure fan­ta­sy, or an ide­al­ized vision of paradise.

Although strik­ing in their inher­ent beau­ty, the artist con­nects with the under­ly­ing dark­ness and melan­cholic exis­tence not evi­dent at first glance. Perez finds that this con­tra­dic­tion reflects the bru­tal and mag­i­cal real­i­ty like the trop­i­cal land­scapes of Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

With­in their com­plex­i­ty, these abun­dant vis­tas pro­pose an escape, a place of con­tem­pla­tion, dreams, and altered states of consciousness.

Emilio Perez is a cur­rent Smart­Stamp Artist in Res­i­dence. Work­ing close­ly with the Swiss tech com­pa­ny beta-test­ing their ground­break­ing tech­nol­o­gy, Perez has pro­vid­ed insight from an artist’s per­spec­tive to help opti­mize the App in accor­dance with SmartStamp’s artist-sup­port­ive and mis­sion-dri­ven spirit.

Smart­Stamp was used to cre­ate dig­i­tal fin­ger­prints and Cer­tifi­cates of Authen­tic­i­ty that will accom­pa­ny every paint­ing in the exhibition.

Smart­Stamp is the pio­neer­ing new stan­dard in iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and authen­ti­ca­tion for the art world that com­bines secure, envi­ron­men­tal­ly sus­tain­able, and easy-to-use tech­nol­o­gy. SmartStamp’s App uses patent­ed AI tech­nol­o­gy designed to read and record art­works’ sur­face char­ac­ter­is­tics – offer­ing artists, col­lec­tors, insti­tu­tions, and all arts and cul­ture stake­hold­ers a way to link phys­i­cal objects secure­ly and immutably to their dig­i­tal fin­ger­prints on the blockchain.

About the Artist

Emilio Perez (b. 1972, New York, NY) attend­ed Pratt Insti­tute and received a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Florida’s New World School of the Arts. His work is cur­rent­ly includ­ed in In the Mind’s Eye: Land­scapes of Cuba at The Patri­cia & Phillip Frost Art Muse­um. He has held solo exhi­bi­tions at the John F. Kennedy Cen­ter of Per­form­ing Arts, Wash­ing­ton D.C. (2018); Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York, NY (2017); Galerie Lelong, New York, NY(2014); J.J. John­son Gallery, Jack­sonville Beach, FL (2013); Pace Prints, New York, NY (2012); Château Lynch-Bages, Pauil­lac, France (2012); and Galerie Lelong, Paris, France (2011); among many oth­ers. His work has been fea­tured at the 12^th Havana Bien­ni­al, Havana, Cuba (2015); Louisiana Art & Sci­ence Muse­um, Baton Rouge, LA (2011); Carnegie Art Muse­um, Oxnard, Cal­i­for­nia (2010); and the Mia­mi Art Muse­um (2009); among oth­ers. Perez’s works can be found in the per­ma­nent col­lec­tions of the PAMM – Perez Art Muse­um, Mia­mi; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buf­fa­lo; Fundación ARCO, Madrid and Arkansas Art Cen­ter, Lit­tle Rock; and in cor­po­rate col­lec­tions internationally.