Work by Pace Prints collaborators Emilio Perez and Leonardo Drew is currently on view in a two-person exhibition at Jacob Lewis Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, 4th Floor. The show will be on view through May 6, 2017.
Evoking the natural environment, the cosmos and bodily systems, Emilio Perez’s paintings on panel and Leonardo Drew’s sculptural assemblages are created intuitively through labor-intensive processes in the artists’ distinct, idiosyncratic visual languages.
Emilio Perez’s newest large-scale diptych and panel paintings undulate with abstract forms in jewel-like colors. Perez’s process-driven approach begins with layers of bold, painterly gestures applied to a sprayed on ground. The artist responds to the surface intuitively, carving away negative space and defining varying fields of color with graphic, hard-edged line. Taking cues from American action painters, pulp graphic arts and the Italian Baroque, Perez’s rhythmic labyrinth of forms fuse painterly concerns to create, in his words, “a journey that, ultimately, the viewer is invited to define.”
Leonardo Drew’s abstract sculptures are crafted additively using seemingly found natural materials. Working from a vast collection of materials amassed over his prolific career, Drew tightly layers painted woodchips, branches and scraps into discreet wall-mounted works in relief. The pieces speak to the interconnectedness of all things as they grapple energetically with the collateral of urban decay and the cyclical nature of human existence—birth, ruin and re-growth.
