Describing his paintings and works on paper as “abstract expressionist … with a graphic component,” Emilio Perez produces punchy, energetic compositions, full of knotted, flowing forms that emerge from loosely painted passages of color. He avoids pre-planning to keep his works loose and immediate, approaching art-making as a dialogue between himself and his materials. To make his paintings, which range from mid-scale to mural-sized, he layers pigment on canvas or wooden panel, then uses an X-Acto Knife to cut away sections, molding the color into his linear forms. Though his work is entirely abstract, it is generated out of his observations of his surroundings, as he explains: “The energy in my work is influenced [by] the rhythm of music and the movement of the ocean. The composition is often influenced by classical paintings and the palette from my travels.”