In a one person show at the Frank Lloyd Gallery from June 24 to July 22, 2006, Gustavo Pérez will present new ceramic works. All of the pieces are a variation on the vase form, with two main bodies of work. In the larger pieces, Gustavo Pérez has returned to his themes of symmetry and linear design. Smaller works explore the compressed form, with perfectly controlled folds of clay compacted and pressed into a small sculptural object.
Skillful and precise execution of ideas marks the work of Gustavo Pérez as a major and distinctive voice in the world of contemporary ceramics. Throughout his thirty-year career, as he has explored ideas of containment, openness, symmetry, branching, patterning and line, Pérez has been a master of controlled form. Gustavo Pérez makes vessels and sculpture that are simple, smooth and symmetrical. Their elegance is due to the precision of the incised lines and other markings on the works. As he ventures into the sculptural realm, where the larger vessels have greater reference to the corporeal or organic, there is a remarkable ability to control the medium and to work within its physical properties. He also makes dimensional constructions, a kind of blending of wall relief sculpture and physical drawing in clay, which explore the ideas of branching, abstract patterning, and linear progression. Here, too, Pérez presents clarity of vision, adept execution, and a sense of grace and natural elegance.
Gustavo Pérez was born in Mexico City in 1950, and studied engineering, mathematics and philosophy before he began his involvement with ceramics. He began exhibiting his ceramic artwork in 1976. Over the past thirty years, he has exhibited internationally, and has received the honor of two retrospective exhibitions in his native country. The first retrospective was mounted by the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City in 1999. Then, in 2005, Pérez was honored with another retrospective at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City.