About Artist Robert Perez

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Artist Robert Perez is a professional mixed-media artist, photographer, director and writer working on the east end of Long Island in New York, USA. Proud member of Professional Photographers of America.

MY WORK:

My fine art work includes photography, mixed-media paintings on wood and canvas, sculpture, design and limited-edition prints. I'm currently writing my first full-length book, alongside developing magazines and photobooks, and film projects. As a Pastor and founder of UNUS ANIMA™, it is my mission to foster genuine spiritual development for the well-being of all people.

To learn more about me as a fine artist please visit: ARTIST ROBERT PEREZ

INFLUENCES:

Photography and art are obsessions that, over a lifetime, have been impacted and shaped from multiple sources.

Art and cinema have been the most influential. The masters of both have more to teach us than can ever be absorbed in one lifetime. Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, Quentin Tarantino, Jeff Koons, Brice Marden, Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly - the list is exhaustive.

This is not name dropping, by no means, but an openness of my heart and it's precious experiences that have shaped my mind, spirit and character. If I were to add music to the list, it would require pages of names and deep explanations. So I've kept my shortlist to visual creators only, many of whom are the usual suspects (rightfully so), with some not so obvious inclusions. I'll make one exception and that is the work of Peter Gabriel, whose work sits alongside Picasso as the most influential on me.

Advertising has been a major influence on me in all aspects since I was a boy. I'm a magazine junkie, always have been. Great photographers have shaped our culture for over 100 years. I'm influenced by all genres, especially black and white images, fashion and documentary work.

I love the exquisite and timeless fashion work of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, the contemporary beauty of Peter Lindbergh and Annie Leibovitz, plus the heyday of street photographers like Joel Meyerowitz. And how can you not be moved by the likes of photographer Fan Ho? Rock and Roll photographers, like Jim Marshall, Mick Rock and Bob Gruen, have influenced my photography and my art.

Documentary photographers are dear to my heart and move me in a special way because of the realism that's NOT real, but interpreted by the photographer and the camera, giving us a hyper-real view, sometimes harrowing, sometimes glorious. The greats like Robert Capa, Don McCullin and Steve McCurry are beacons that drive me to excel.

In addition to being a professional painter and sculptor, I studied acting at New York University and film making at Long Island University, along with philosophy and writing. Great art, photography, cinema, literature and philosophy have been key to the development of my visual language(s).

As a Pastor, I'm on a continual quest to find the esoteric mystical wisdom inscribed in code for the diligent person to discover.