T/TH 12-2
Francisco Perez was born in Puerto Rico in 1949. His formative years were spent in Connecticut where he earned a scholarship to study art at the Hartford Art School. In 1972 he received his B.F.A. in sculpture. In the early 1970s Perez established a woodworking studio where, along with his sculptures, he began designing and crafting functional art furniture and exhibiting in museums and galleries along the east coast. He left Connecticut to do graduate work in sculpture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, receiving his M.F.A. in 1980. During the early 80s, Perez began employing participatory and interactive elements in his artwork.
He incorporated strategies in his installations and outdoor site works in an attempts to engage and involve the viewer. His concern for the environment and what is happening to it is evident in the artwork, which draws attention to the relationship between the social and natural world. He says, “…urban culture displaces and blinds us to this relationship, distorting our natural identities, alienating human society from the natural system (that it contains and nurtures). He pulls the audience into his constructed allegories to make them aware of their relationship with nature, to restore their “natural” sense of self as part of a larger ecology…” These works were presented locally and nationally throughout the 80s and early 90s in traditional and nontraditional venues.
Perez taught for a time at The Hill School in eastern Pennsylvania. During that five-year period he had the opportunity to explore his interest in working directly with the landscape. He acquired ten acres of woodlands in the northeastern corner of Penn, at the headwaters of the Susquehana River. Here he worked unfettered in the natural environment, experimenting in passive relationships between built structures and natural and biological systems. In 1986 he accepted a teaching position at San Francisco State University and moved to California where he currently resides with his wife and four sons.
In the mid 90s Perez’s work began to shift from traditional studio art and traditional art venues towards a more interactive and contextualized public art form During this period he entered the arena of community based art practices. Perez, along with his students, completed a number of community collaborative projects in the Bay Area.
Recently, Perez completed work on Jardin de las Mariposa, a breeding habitat for indigenous butterflies, raised for release into El Bosque del Pueblo in Puerto Rico. Perez has been actively involved since 1993 with Casa Pueblo, an anti-mining coalition in the central mountain community of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico that has evolved into a community art and culture center. It is recognized internationally as a model of community action and management. Their 20-year campaign to save 55 square miles of tropical rain forest from a massive strip mining operation eventually succeeded, transforming it into a national forest reserve. 900 acres were entrusted to the community and Casa Pueblo to manage as a national park. Perez has participated in the unfolding of this new concept, in an advisory capacity, developing opportunities for community collaborative projects, and pragmatically utilizing innovative public design strategies that encompass public education and environmental mediation among other activities.
Education
- M.F.A., Cranbrook Academy of Art
- B.F.A. University of Hartford, CT
