Javier Perez

JAVIER PÉREZ (Bilbao, 1958).
"Human", 1958.
Life-size figure in polyester resin. Smoke engine and fabric.
Measurements: 65 x 75 cm.

In "Human" Javier Perez imitates a being of flesh and blood, apparently withdrawn and anguished, sitting on the floor against a wall. His particularity lies in the absence of a physical body, although he is elegantly dressed in suit pants, white shirt and lace-up shoes. The character's head is missing; instead, a trail of smoke rises from his neck and announces his presence. With this work Pérez represents the abyss to which the individual is subjected, the dispossession and the impossibility of recovering the unity of the human condition.

Javier Pérez is one of the most internationally renowned Spanish artists. He studied Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country, extending his training at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he lived from 1992 to 1997. He burst onto the international scene in his first exhibition held in 1996 in Paris and, a year later, with another show at the Museée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg. His work has been exhibited in Lagrasse (France), Vienna (Austria), Bilbao, Barcelona, Paris, Switzerland, Milan, Burgos, Madrid, Prague, etc. In addition, it is preserved both in private collections around the world and in major institutions (Centre Pompidou in Paris, Centro Museo-Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo in Vitoria, Collection CAM Caja del Mediterráneo in Alicante, Corning Museum of Glass in New York, MACBA in Barcelona, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen in France, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, etc.).