Carlos Charlie Perez

Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York is thrilled to present a solo exhibition by Carlos Charlie Perez titled It's Fun to Pretend to Be Other People curated by Dominic Terlizzi. Perez appropriates this Bruce Willis quote to aptly describe what he refers to as “costume paintings.”

Sometimes people wish they were somebody else, even if temporarily. Using the semiotics of film to construct multi-framed paintings, Carlos Perez’s work often employs lighting and narrative constructions derived from the moving image. Perez is particularly interested in the film technique where an actor breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the audience. Says Perez, “I strive for a similar effect whereby the conversation extends beyond the confines of the canvas and allows for the interactive exploration of non-traditional themes between the work and the viewer.”

After years of experience behind the lens directing music videos and photographing lifestyle fashion, Perez mines this history to create a multiplicity of personas in his work. Each painting is actively performing and playing dress-up over the established visual frame in a suggestion of different personalities and familiar characters. His use of overlaying typography, painted elements, trompe l’oeil, and collage onto discarded and found clothing add to the variations of costume, and touches on themes such as Americana, race, and sports.

Perez’s installation organizes the paintings into a grid, inviting viewers to find new connections between them. Comparing the various costumes allows us to project a new conversation and story line into each, imagining different modes of existing, and potential role-playing. The paintings offer humor and generalizations of identity in wardrobe choices, while simultaneously imparting lingering questions of culture, class, taste, temperament, and politics.

Carlos Charlie Perez (b. 1982 Fort Lauderdale, Florida) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. A first generation Cuban American, Perez moved to New York City after high school to attend Cooper Union, graduating with his BFA in 2004. Perez has exhibited in shows at the Studio Museum of Harlem, NY; Guild And Greyshkul, NY; and Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY. In 2022 he completed a residency at the Atlantic Center For The Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida. This is Perez’s first solo presentation of his paintings in New York City.