Alumni of Otis College of Art and Design, The Perez Bros, are identical twin brothers Alejandro and Vicente from South Gate, CA. Exposed to Los Angeles car culture at a very young age, they are fascinated with everything in the scene from the cars to the models, the people to the music, and share a peek into that world through their paintings.
What was the inspiration behind the body of work that will be showing at the Brand Library & Art Center?
Growing up with our dad we would always go to lowrider car shows and cruise nights with him. Music is a really big part of the culture. One of our favorite songs that we would always listen to was More Bounce to the Ounce by Zapp. We wanted to sort of create some type of theme based around that song. The song has nothing to do with lowriders, but we like to connect it to lowrider car hoppers. So we decided to feature a car hopper in every one of the paintings in this show.
Do you have any pre-studio rituals that help you get into a creative flow?
Every day after work, we go in to the studio and the first thing we do is take a long nap. Then we both eat a pepperoni hot pocket for breakfast. While we eat, we put on some music to get our creative flow going. Then we set up our paint stations and begin painting.
When you were working on this body of work, what were you both listening to in the background? Do you guys rock different soundtracks for the various stages of the creative process?
We listen to a lot of different types of music while painting. Nothing specific, but we usually stick to one artist or genre each day. Throughout the creation of More Bounce, we listened to a lot of Kid Cudi, Prayers, Tropa Magica, The Red Pears, Chicano Batman, Lowrider Oldies, and a lot more. We don’t really listen to a certain type of music for the various stages, it kind of just depends on what type of mood we are in that day.
Is there an artist or piece of work that has made a significant impact on either of you? As a duo? Has that work influenced your own artistic voice/style(s)?
We look at a lot of different artists, but we don’t really draw inspiration from them. We get inspired through the city of Los Angeles, and the lowrider culture. We would have to say that it definitely influenced our lowrider paintings. But what inspired us to become a duo wasn’t artists duos, it was the Hardy Boys from WWE. As little kids, we actually wanted to become world tag team champions. We always thought it was so cool that they were doing something that they love together. We never became world tag team champions, but we did become a tag team in the art world.
What piece challenged you most in this body of work, and why?
We feel that every piece that we do challenges us. Honestly we are always scared to start a new piece, because we feel as if we forgot how to paint. So every new piece feels like we are starting to learn how to paint all over again. But through this, we always seem to discover new techniques.
What do you think will be said about the New Contemporary Art Movement in 100 years?
Maybe it would be said that it was one of the largest art movements in art history. That it inspired a new generation of artist.
For now, the Brand Library and Arts Center are unfortunately not welcoming visitors. This Saturday, November 7 at 1 pm we will go live on our Instagram to tour the show and we will also be sharing a professionally filmed video tour of the exhibitions on our Instagram and Facebook around that same time. A self-guided virtual tour will be shared shortly as well.
