Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- In Enoc Perez’s large-scale paintings, images of grand hotels seem to disintegrate amid accumulating paint.
In “The Good Days,” his second solo show at Acquavella Galleries, the New York-based artist revisits modern architecture of his native San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Perez is known for giving landmark buildings the iconic treatment Andy Warhol reserved for celebrities. He started about a decade ago, with buildings whose history and names -- Normandie, El Miramar, La Concha -- alluded to his country’s colonial past.
Back then, seductively textured images were crisp and easily identifiable. The new paintings are a lot more abstract. Densely layered oil paint obliterates the buildings’ solid structure, leaving behind only ghostly silhouettes. Perez’s former tropical palette has given way to pastels.
The show also introduces Perez’s first sculptures, inspired by his collection of swizzle sticks, many from the hotels he paints. The tiny trivia are cast on a much larger scale -- one piece is more than 6 feet tall.
The lanky, knobby formations -- some bronze, others plaster -- also look abstract and figurative at once, alluding to Giacometti and Twombly.