I grew up in the Inland Empire. It's the largest county in the United States, and except for coastal lines, it’s a concentrated region in Southern California that encompasses a familiar image of the US — people, land, economy, authoritarianism, and spirituality. This complex landscape and exercising the in-betweenness of being Filipino and Mexican are core to my ability to form inquiries within my work. However, it’s not that my work is about these subjects specifically, but how simultaneously encountering my ancestry through the landscape while also encountering the Inland Empire formed an outlook where the imposition of “truth” in the body and land is suspect and not an authenticator of knowledge or experience. This formative exercise in thinking developed my sensibility to imagine possibilities in existence and survival, and not necessarily separate, but of topic — art.  

If truth is no longer the goal, my story doesn't need to be better than yours for you to listen. If collaboration in conversation is the goal, our coming together becomes about approaching knowledge and exploring possibilities. I make photographs to share what I’m seeing, looking at, thinking about, sensing, or provoking. I engage the photograph not to seek truths but to engage possibilities in meaning through the conventions of the tool itself and the photograph’s objecthood relative to spacetime. In my work, there is a disconnect between how I imagine myself in the landscape and living within a complex matrix of social conditions and histories. The camera can point at imagined narratives of aesthetic power, capitalism, war, colonization, unrest, life & death, all else unknowingly buried in the ground we sow. 

Ryan Perez (b. 1982, Oceanside, CA) makes photographs, sculptures, and videos. His work has been exhibited at sites including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The UC Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery; The California Museum of Photography, UC Riverside, Ca; Phase Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Yautepec Gallery, CD, MX; C24 Gallery, NY, NY; Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles; Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles; The Fulcrum Press, Los Angeles, Ca; Control Room, Los Angeles, Ca; and The Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CA. 

Perez's studio is in Monrovia, CA, and he teaches at ArtCenter College of Design.

Education 
2012 – University of California Riverside
Master of Fine Art — Visual Arts 

2008 – Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
Bachelor of Fine Art — Fine Art Photography

Exhibition History
Individual & 2 Person Exhibitions 

2024 - Long Distance, Ryan Perez & Ricky Weaver at Phase Gallery, Los Angeles 
2015 – Bad Faith, Yautepec Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
2014 – Altered States, C24 Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2013 – Art Los Angeles Contemporary , w/ Yautepec Gallery, Santa-Monica, Ca
2012 – Don't Say Goodnight, Yautepec Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
2012 —The Arrival, LACMA Special Projects, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Ca
2012 — UC Riverside Thesis Show, Sweeney Art Gallery, Riverside, CA.

Group Exhibitions

2022 
-Perris, Fulcrum Press & Tyler Park Presents, Los Angeles, Ca
-Friendzone, Southwestern College Art Gallery, Chula Vista, Ca

2019 
– In the Sunshine of Neglect, Curated by Douglas McCulloh, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, Ca

2018 
– Vision Valley, Curated by The Pit Gallery for the Brand Library, Glendale, Ca

2017 
– All the Small Things, Steve Turner Contemporary; 
-Material Art Fair w/Yautepec Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico; 
-Far Bazaar, Cerritos College, Cerritos, Ca.

2016 
– Material Art Fair w/Yautepec Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico; 
-Critical Distance, Art Center Center College of Design Alumni Show, Pasadena, Ca
-Dream Art Fair Miami w/Yautepec Gallery Mexico City, Mexico.

2015
– Second Wave: Aesthetics of the ʻ80s in Today's Contemporary Art, UCR Sweeny Art Gallery, Riverside, CA, USA
-Gray Grey, Vacancy, Los Angeles, CA,

2014 
– INPUT/OUTPUT, FotoFocus Biennial, DAAP Galleries, Cincinnati, OH, USA
-Apollo TBD, Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Art Los Angeles Contemporary , w/Yautepec, Los Angeles, CA

2013 
– Insider Sports , Control Room, Los Angeles, CA, USA
-NADA Miami Beach, w/Yautepec, Miami Beach, FL, USA
-Art-O-Rama , w/Yautepec, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France

2012 
– a car a man a maraca , Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, Ca
-Dualities, Arts Brooksfield Bank of America, Los Angeles, Ca
-BOOM, Southern California MFA Group Exhibition, West Hollywood, Ca
-Immaterial Ergonomics , Space4art, San Diego, Ca
-Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Yautepec Gallery, Santa Monica, Ca.

2011 
– L.A. Print: Edition 2, Pepin Moore/Presented by LACMA, Los Angeles, Ca;
-Co/Lab with Control Room, Art Platform Los Angeles, Presented by Artra Curatorial, Los Angeles, Ca
-Centerfold, Freak City, Hollywood, Ca
-Slam Socks, Peoples Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
-Other People's Parties, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, Ca
-Seven Minutes in Heaven, Control Room, Los Angeles, Ca
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