Emilio Perez, a native New Yorker and former Pratt Student, is had his first solo show with Galerie Lelong (528 West 26th Street). His automatic drawings and organic doodles are painted with slick latex while portions are sliced from the board. They reminisce with urban Wild Style graffiti in a softer, more educated palette. Somehow they have mixed together industrial cleanliness into street art not found on typical corners. These collections of paintings, some as far back as 2005, have graduated from his sometimes centrally based earlier work. Their cascading, swirling, landscape compositions are a trademark of this artist. While many of the images appear similar, Perez shows the ability to create a cohesive body of work. The movement and energy generated by these are sometimes visually bogged. However, this work is outright invigorating and inspiring to gallerists and viewers that not all art in Chelsea has to be expensive and horrible to look at.
