Rodolfo Peraza

Rodolfo Peraza, artist, and Michelle Bird, curatorial assistant, department of French paintings, National Gallery of Art. Born in 1980, a year closely associated with the birth of "new Cuban art," Rodolfo Peraza belongs to the generation of young artists that has inherited a legacy of the hard-fought freedom of individual artistic expression. While questions of isolation, loneliness, and self-identity persist, his work traverses the confines of geographic and personal borders through technology. Using the internet, social media, and animation, Peraza creates a body of work that explores the moral, spiritual, and social modes of conduct governing society. In his For Your Safety series, the human figure is reduced to uniformity by means of a simplified language of symbol. Constantly in conflict with its environment, the figure addresses issues of authority and control. In this conversation, which took place on February 6, 2012, as part of the Works in Progress series at the National Gallery of Art, Rodolfo Peraza discusses his emerging practice with Michelle Bird.