Aporia | Esteban Ramón Pérez

Working primarily with leather, Pérez creates objects that place painting in dialogue with textiles and sculpture, expanding how we consider the history and possibilities of painting as a medium. While drawing has always been central to Pérez’s practice, Aporia is the first exhibition to center his works on paper.

Following the philosophical concept of aporia as a logical impasse with no resolution, Aporia brings two contradictory approaches to drawing face to face. In one approach, Pérez utilizes line drawing to create custom compositions that examine themes of religion, colonial history, art traditions and cultural and personal narratives. These compositions are frequently transferred onto leather surfaces using a modified tattoo machine and soldering irons.

The artist’s second approach to drawing uses automotive masking tape to create freehand designs called emanations. Inspired by auras in Mexican Baroque figurative art, Pérez’s emanations explore the potential for abstract fields of energy to function as non-figurative portraits.

Aporia unites approaches to drawing often seen as distinct, allowing Pérez to maintain two separate bodies of work while affirming their entanglement within a unified concept. The exhibition features eight works on paper—four employing one approach to drawing and four employing the second—alongside two leather works.