Na’ye Perez will be in residence at Rosemary Square from September 9, 2021 - December 9, 2021.
Consume me in the echoes of the rhythms
Where the pink flower storms gather
Between the aisles of the projects’ buildings
The high grass never manicured
Swaying in the wind
Rolling as if they were the ocean waves
Crashing down on the side walk
-excerpt from Na’ye Perez’s Hood Flowers Among Ocean Fields
Na'ye Perez is a Brooklyn based Haitian-Cuban interdisciplinary artist. Pulling from my experiences growing up in Columbus, Ohio, LA and Camden, NJ as well New York. My practice is a type of remixing, similar to how a sound engineer or producer would sample hooks, beats or choruses to create new music. However, instead I collage materials such as Backwoods, Swishers Sweets, magazines, historical archives, and personal memorabilia in conjunction with symbols, colors, and patterns to framework my art.
By navigating through personal experience and memory, the importance of intimacy within my community and self establishes my narrative and modes of accessibility. My work uses everyday interaction such as playing cards in gallery spaces via a performance, riding bikes through the neighborhood through a painting to connect with individuals. These moments are juxtaposed between hidden symbolism of music, fashion, and black history. By shifting the narratives to one of embrace and empowerment without a reliance on trauma. Whether its exposure of color seen in contemporary popular fashion, or aesthetics of graffiti and street art, they become layers of texture and imagery for the environment and the people depicted carry out their lives and share experience in each work.
Noting on these ideas, they become intertwined with resistance and the black presence through everyday life in my work.
Recent exhibitions include his solo shows, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” at RegularNormal Gallery (2021), “Still I Rise…” at Syracuse University (2019). His recent group exhibitions include “Those Who Ride The Night Winds” in NYC, “New Contemporaries, Vol 2” in LA (2021), “inheritance” and “You Don’t See Me” (2020). Currently participating in the inaugural Pratt FORWARD Artist Professional Program (2021). He was part of Inaugural Pratt Forward Class of 2021. He completed the Pratt Project 3rd Residency Programs (2019) and The Shed’s DISOBEY residency in Queens, NY (2019).
