Behind the colorful and sensual surface a world of struggle emerges, a search for identity and a personal definition of sexuality. Raphael Perez is exploring his own homosexuality, within the world he creates sexual preferences are not limited, it’s a representation of a free and open minded world. But underneath this ideal and sometimes humoristic appearance there is often a sense of the outside ‘real’ world.
In his early work Perez uses a realistic expressionistic style, portraits, nudes and more thematic works, like “Man giving birth”, “Relationships” and “In Front of the Mirror”. He is clearly trying to develop a personal artistic style by using different traditional concepts and ways to communicate. From this early work the couple paintings, in a semi realistic style, are absolutely stunning pieces of art. The way he uses the paint, the little exaggeration in structure and color, and the subtile composition are revealing a very talented artist.
Besides these more ‘realistic’ paintings he always made work in a more naive colorful style, kind of a mixture of David Hockney’s endless plays by the pool, and the graphical freedom of Cobra. This naive style is still rather undefined, and I personally would like to see a more clear artistic direction, in the long run it would give his work more depth, in both style and subject.
Raphael Perez is an artist I will continue to follow, he is very talented and I’m curious how his work will develop in the future. For now take your time to explore his personal erotic world it is definitely worth it.
The early work of Perez on gay paintings
