Santiago Perez speaking at the opening reception for his exhibition, A Kinship with All Things, March 6th through March 22nd, 2020. A Kinship With All Things is a two-person exhibition with paintings by Alexandra Eldridge and Santiago Pérez. Both artists paint dreamlike, mythic landscapes populated by animals and human/animal hybrid figures all of whom navigate a changing— often magical— world.
Santiago Pérez is known for highly narrative paintings that read like surreal fairy tales. In his work, strange figures repeat and reappear in chimerical settings and situations. Perez’s cadre of fantastic characters function as allegories for the human condition, and the vignettes they populate explore wild adventures of the imagination. In this exhibition Pérez follows a new character, The Deer, which to the artist functions as the embodiment of wild joy and natural innocence, and who, in these works, navigates an incredible world where nature and human invention have interwoven in strange new dreamlike scenarios.
Santiago Pérez was raised in Texas and now lives in New Mexico. His work has been widely exhibited and is included in the collections of the Albuquerque Museum, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and various private and corporate collections
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WHEN DO YOU SEE THE DEER? The canvas is a place to explore the imagination and other fantastic ideas, forms, and characters. Things correspond to the real world, and, in some cases, do become real. A host of anthropomorphic characters populate my work: The Mergatroid—the bird man is the most ubiquitous. Then, there is the Little Boy and the Lion. This combo is like a Candide and his best buddy out to see the world and finding it beautiful, and dangerous, too. The Eggman makes his appearance, now and then, a creature who has a fragile composition, yet tackles some pretty testy situations. In this new series, they and other inventions carry forward the story of search and revelation, living and exploring new surroundings. And, now, The Deer, makes its appearance. They have been in several paintings before. They are the symbols of life— jumping, cavorting, and just being happy to be alive. In some of the work, they find themselves in precarious situations, probably no different from the real world, on watch for predators and automobiles as they cross roads. I have put them in a quasi-post-apocalyptic world. How they got there is a subject for another series. However, in this group, they find themselves on icebergs, in the clouds, in boats. And, they are coping, and surviving, above all with their deer smiles and gracefulness. An animal, like deer, responds to life with instinct, some acquired habits, and bit of rapid reflex ingenuity. Their main intention is to survive and procreate and carry on. And, that goes pretty much for human beings, but we have layers of culture, knowledge, and history to the mix, and, somehow, I don’t think we’re doing much better. It’s quite startling to imagine the sensibility of creatures other than us. I received some illumination. Perhaps there is something in those icebergs which has been hiding all these millions of years. They might contain more secrets of life. There might be seeds and living forms trapped in there. And, as they melt, that new life will spring forth. Maybe. But, maybe that’s another story. I had a good time painting these canvases, and they put a smile on my face. These familiar forms encounter the changes going on in culture and the rest of the world, pretty much like their author. The intention of each work is obvious, and I try to add humor and humanity. When do you see the deer? is a call to awareness. Santiago Perez, Feb. 8, 2020
