NA'YE PEREZ

I am an interdisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, and printmaking to tell our stories and embody what I call the “Black Presence.” This presence lives in our communities, our experiences, the objects and materials we leave behind, our memories, and our will to exist and endure. My practice is deeply personal, shaped by the people and places that have been part of my journey—New York, Los Angeles, Columbus, Camden—and grounded in the heritage of my Haitian family. These geographies and histories have left their imprint on me, becoming inseparable from my work.

At its core, my practice explores the spiritual dimension of the Black Presence—connection, grief, resilience, desire, and belonging. I often draw from the structure of the archive, layering materials and memory to build something that resonates across time.

My process mirrors the structure of Hip Hop—sampling, layering, and looping. Just as a producer builds a beat, I build my compositions from paint, charcoal, photography, magazine clippings, and environmental materials. I work with what’s given and what’s found—Barbancourt boxes from Haiti, old photo archives, sand, funeral tags—transforming them into layered narratives that root each piece in a particular community or memory.

Ultimately, my work is a way of connecting back to my life and lineage. It’s about building from what has been passed down—to honor our people, especially those who continue to resist and survive. The presence I depict isn’t just physical—it lives in what we carry, what we create, and what we leave behind. Through my work, I hope to expand the role of art as a site of accessibility, care, and cultural endurance—especially for Haiti and its diaspora.