PERRI NERI
Known for large-scale abstract figurative paintings that explore bodies moving through space and the simultaneity of multiple truths, Neri faced an unexpected turning point when studio constraints forced her to abandon her signature 72 x 60-inch canvases. The result is a surprising departure: a focused investigation of the single face, the singular moment, and the contemporary selfie as a form of self-portraiture.
“I am fascinated by the visceral palpability of being human. Working on the raw side of the canvas feels like a metaphorical skin that absorbs the paint, like the way our bodies, faces, and eyes hold onto memories – a miscellany of predicaments coexisting at the same time.”
Conceived as an ongoing project, Caught Looking: The Selfie Project began with a simple call to action on social media. Neri invited her followers—some close friends, others virtual strangers—to submit selfies for her to interpret in paint. “It’s full strength will be revealed in its numbers,” Neri explains, “The project taps into the currency of our image-saturated age: the carefully composed self-portrait meant for an audience of intimates or the entire internet.”
This ambition mirrors her earlier investigation of the moving body across large canvases: a multiplicity of presence, each distinct, accumulating into something greater than the sum of its parts. In moving from multiplicity to singularity, from sweeping gesture to concentrated gaze, Neri has found new terrain.
“Caught Looking is an exploration of how we present ourselves, how we want to be seen, and what happens when the artist’s hand mediates this self-image.”
Biography
Perri Neri is an independent artist, curator, and writer currently working in Boston and New York City. She is the Founder and Creative Director of The Artist’s Living Room Foundation and Refrigerator Poetry Visual Art Archive.
Neri holds an MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and has had several solo exhibitions in New York City at The Painting Center and Ceres Gallery. Neri has also been included in several group exhibitions in New York City galleries that include The Flag Art Foundation, Caelum Gallery, and AIR in Brooklyn. A retrospective of her work was exhibited at The Morean Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida (2020). Other exhibitions include the Orlando Museum of Art, Polk Museum of Art, and Tampa Museum of Art. Her curatorial projects include “I Am My Best Work (2020), “New Optics” (2020), “Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love,” (2021), and “Indivisible Spectrum.” (2022). Neri’s work has been featured in two volumes of Studio Visit Magazine and was featured in Honeysuckle Magazine (2015), Women in Contemporary Art, Where are They Now?