Artist Statement

 

Monica Perez is a Uruguayan artist whose practice moves between painting, sculpture, and installation to examine the entanglements of history, memory, and material. She works with elemental substances — wool, wax, soil, canvas, and paint — chosen for their tactility and the cultural, ecological, and political narratives they carry. These materials are not passive: they hold energy, memory, and agency. They act as co-authors, guiding the process and shaping the meaning of each piece.

Mark-making, layering, binding, and staining become gestures of both ritual and resistance. Her work explores systems of classification, trade, and identity, often tracing repressed or obscured histories tied to colonization, migration, and land. Acts of care are embedded in the process — through repetition, touch, and attention to the body of the work as a living surface.

Perez’s pieces invite a slow encounter. They create space for rupture and relation — for sensing rather than resolving — and for the possibility of repair.