Javier Ruiz Perez (La Carolina, Jaén, Spain, 1989)’ pantings are collage-like compositions consisting of visual footage collected from social media and the internet.
The depicted subjects are always living figures, a group of people or single individuals, against a background of andalusian landscapes.
The medium employed is oil paint on canvas and paper, applied quickly, wet on wet, a technique that confers a sense of urgency and immediacy to the works.
This intuitive conviction that appears to guide Perez’s making process stems from the nature of his subject matter: the obvious of the real. His paintings always manage to deliver an uncanny balance between credibility and oddity, resulting in depictions that are incomprehensible, yet plausible.
This directness is the effect of portraying banal realities of the internet or of everyday life, but twisting them delicately. Most and foremost, it’s the choice of re-installing scenes of modern life into idyllic landscapes that generates a subtle...sense of confusion in the viewer, who finds him/herself unsurprised by what he sees, but taken aback by the context.
Situations that we are bound to recognize as fragments of our collective imagery, shaped by social media and contemporary culture, are here juxtaposed to peaceful lanscapes of green hills and mediterranean mountains, in a contrast of harmony and absurdity that carries sarcastic undertones.
Perez’ pantings are also reminiscent of classical oevres: ‘Vida plácida, protégenos de todo mal’ retrace the bodily position of Christ in traditional ‘deposition’ altarpieces, while ‘Vida plácida, protégenos de todo mal II’ . reminds of old master’s depictions of Jesus’ deathbed. This taste for the past allows the works to deliver an ulterior sense of familiarity in the viewer, while at the same time creating a feeling of estrangement due to the use of bold colors, strange facial expressions or the sudden insertion of modern objects.
The peculiarity of Perez’s practice lies exactly in this subtle interplay between the banality and the absurd, dreams and reality, in compositions that manage to become timeless in their extreme contemporaneity.
Javier Ruiz Perez (Jaén, 1989) graduated from the Escuela de arte 10 in Madrid and the Pasadena Art Center in Los Angeles in 2013. His works are part of important private and museum collections including Museum Voorlinden , NL and MEAM (museum of European Art Barcelona), ES.
Javier Ruiz Perez lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
– Text by Sara van Bussel
Entrada actualizada el el 11 mar de 2022
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