NADA New York 2022

Na’ye Perez’s interdisciplinary works are inspired by his coming-of-age in Ohio, California, New Jersey, and New York. Now based in Brooklyn, the artist likens his practice to that of sampling in music, collaging instead materials that range from personal memorabilia, magazine clippings, historical archives, and flavored cigarillo wrappers. These layers are further mixed with symbols, colors, and patterns that, taken together, become visual frameworks for the subjects in his mixed media paintings. Inspired by everyday interactions, Perez aims to instill empowerment and intimacy, in place of trauma, within narratives that center on the Black community.

Sunsets In Harlem depicts an abstracted male figure carrying a child in his arms. The pair appears before a brightly hued background, made up of sourced fragments laid atop geometric blocks of colors to replicate the buildings that populate an urban environment.