Fabián Pérez (Argentina, 1967)
Juergas Bajo El Sol
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Created in 2006; signed lower right and back of canvas.
Fabian Perez: At the age of 9, Fabian became fascinated with the paintbrush. Using watercolors and tempera, he painted portraits of his friends and family. His mother, Edua Herreria, a beautiful Brazilian woman, met his father, a handsome and charismatic man, Antonio Perez, in the late 1950s, in Campana, a small city outside Buenos Aires. They married and had four children, of whom Fabian is the youngest.
Edua was the creative force in Fabian’s life, and Antonio was the inspiration for his work. Fabian witnessed his father’s unorthodox and often difficult life, portraying him in his paintings as “the cool guy” outside nightclubs and bordellos. Antonio owned several brothels and illegal nightclubs in Campana and was frequently chased and closed down by the police. Today we see these “ladies
of the night” exquisitely portrayed in many of Fabian’s paintings - memories of his youth and the nightlife he observed.
After the death of his parents in his teens, Perez found strength and a degree of inner peace through the study of martial arts. In 1984 he met the greatest inspiration of his life – Oscar Higa, who later became his teacher, master, friend, and father figure. In 1987 after six months in Rio, Perez took up residence in Padova, near Venice, where he stayed for seven years, studying with Oscar before moving to Okinawa, Japan. He finally decided to experience a different side of life in the USA, and in Los Angeles, he worked as a busboy, a model and ran odd jobs for Universal Studios. With his days full, he painted throughout the night and considers this the most creative period of his life. Shortly after, his artwork was discovered, and the demand for his work exploded.
In 2009, Perez was named the official artist of the 10th annual Latin Grammy Awards. In 2010, one of his paintings was chosen to advertise the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2013, Perez was presented with the ATIM Masters Award as “master of the year” by the ArtTour International magazine.