Elle Perez | MTSU Foundations

ELLE PÉREZ IN THEIR NEW YORK STUDIO, 2018.

Elle Pérez was born in 1989 in the Bronx area of New York and is a gender-nonconforming trans artist who primarily uses photography to explore ideas of intimacy, vulnerability, and gender identity. Perez varies slightly with the materials they use, but they mainly use either Digital Silver Gelatin prints or Archival Pigment prints for their work; both measured as 44 3/8 x 31 x 2 inches. They received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography in 2011 from the Maryland Institute College of Art. From there they went on to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Yale School of Art in 2015.

Pérez first became interested in photography at the age of 12 when they started photographing the Bronx punk community; and by doing so ended up documenting many of the individuals who defined these spaces. An example of their earlier work can be seen above; this particular series was taken around 2016 and focused on documenting the New York entertainment wrestling scene. As of today, Pérez’s work has been included in around 26 exhibitions within the last 8 years. However, their work began gaining more attention in 2018 due to their first two solo exhibitions; “In Bloom”, which was displayed at 47 Canal in New York, New York, and “Diablo”, which was displayed at the MoMA PS1 in New York, New York. It is worth noting that “Diablo” is not necessarily a completely separated work from “In Bloom”, instead it is more of a continuation of it. This is why many of the same ideas of gender identity and intimacy from “In Bloom” carry over into “Diablo.”

Although most of their work initially seems like street or documentary-style photography, nearly all of their art is actually highly staged. Pérez, as an artist, doesn’t seem to be necessarily interested in the actual moment or individual they are photographing, instead they are interested in documenting the feeling or relationship of their subject. Due to this they tend to focus more on specific parts or details of their subject. An example of this can be seen in Pérez’s photo titled “Binder” from their 2019 exhibition, “In Bloom”. The subject is quite plain, it’s simply a chest binder hanging on a curtain rod. However, Pérez focuses on the details of the binder, such as its frayed straps, discoloration, and the holes in the back of it. By doing so, Pérez highlights the relationship they have to the binder, like how many years they have used it and how much they depend on it. Larissa Pham, Pérez’s text collaborator for “In Bloom” comments on Pérez’s work, “These details weight the form; it is how ordinary objects become haloed and special.”

Pérez is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University, a critic at the Yale School of Art, and a Dean at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Their most recent project was a solo exhibition titled “from sun to sun”, which was commissioned by the Public Art Fund, in partnership with JCDecaux. The project consisted of 16 new works displayed on bus shelters across all 6 borrows of New York. It was displayed between August 13, 2019 and November 24, 2019.