Featured Artist

Aimee Perez – Miami, FL

Aimee Perez was born in Habana Cuba in 1955. She left for the United States when she was twelve with her family through the Freedom Flights and grew up in Miami in Cuban immigrant community. As a young adult she won the Gold Key Award in painting and several honorable mentions as she continued her pursuit of the arts during her college years. In 1989 she moved to Mexico City and continued painting and exhibiting with Cuban and Mexican artist. In 1997 she was invited to participate as a guest artist in the studio of Mexican sculptor Jose Sacal and it is here she begins to work for the first time in 3D with clay. She returned to Miami in 2006 and continued her work winning several awards for her figurative ceramics in the state of Florida. Perez has been praised for her command of gestures making her sculptures expressionistic and powerful which combined with the juxtaposition to found objects creates an organic symbiosis. She says her work is her voice, a dialogue with the observer and simultaneously a self-exploration. Her work can be found in many private collection in the United States and Mexico and in permanent collections including Florida International University Honors College Collection and Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama.

Education:
Endicott College – Bachelors of Science – Magna Caume Laude

Awards:

2017 – Merit Award, Rare Harvest, Huntsville Museum of Art, Red Clay. Huntsville, Alabama
2014 – The Ceramic League of Miami, best in show “After the Battle” Arturo Gonzales juror
2013 – The Ceramic League of Miami, best in show “Toro” Debra Fritts juror
2013 – Artsight Gallery Juror’s choice, Maria Lino juror

Artist Statement:
I work with human forms – with the gestures and emotions, lives and relationships – that serve as archetypes by transcending the context of their story. Through the exploration of contemporary, religious and biblical themes, I create sculptures that explore spiritual truth and the paradoxical truths of suffering and redemption, grief and comfort. The mediums I use include various types of clays fired at high or low temperatures and surfaced with oxides washes, slips, terra sigillata, engobes and glazes. I have also been known to to add encaustic, wax, metals, glass, and found objects to add layers to a piece.