Today for lunch, I got an outstanding sandwich at Peanuts on San Fernando between 6th and 7th streets downtown San Jose, followed by a stroll up a few blocks and around the corner to Kaleid Gallery on 4th Street. Because there’s nothing more distracting than viewing good art on an empty stomach.
Kaleid is always home to multiple exhibits of local artists’ art, but the one that greeted me upon my entry into the gallery today was Joe Perea’s The Key to Technological and Spiritual Renaissance.
Perea juxtaposes nature and technology — his art depicts organic figures, like the flower of life, using lines that resemble those running down micro-chips. I found his art mores spiritual than mythological, even though the lines between the two can get quite blurred.
The medium for Perea’s art is simple– cardboard and skateboard decks– something most young people growing up in the bay can relate to as artifacts of our daily lives. But the simplicity of the canvas is no way should underestimate the inticracy and detail in Perea’s art, which in many instances requires a magnifying glass for viewing, which are readily available for the spectators viewing pleasure.
Perea’s art seems to be depicting the nature of our existence as an intertwining cycle between the forces of technology and nature, so much that they become one, and a reflection of each other. This is best depicted in Yin and Yang.
Perea has produced something that is very organic. It’s funny how our society has accepted technology as something that is natural and organic. The Key to Technological and Spiritual Renaissance is true to the zeitgeist of our culture and the changing spirituality, which is molding with the technology that we are creating. And so the cycle of creation continues.
Penned by Alina K. A. 