Joseph Perez has broken all the rules when it comes to his artwork. Although he has been an artist his entire life, his latest work fuses his love for creating art with his love of dance.
“As a kid, I loved finger-painting,” Perez said.
He took this childhood passion and turned it into something entirely new. About a year ago, Perez, who now goes by the name Sentrock, ditched the paint brush. Sentrock now regularly dons paint-splattered clothing, covers his hands and the soles of his shoes in paint, and creates art through breakdancing.
In his art exhibition titled Sound in Color, Sentrock debuted his work. The life-sized canvases were framed and hung on walls for viewers.
ASU affiliates found him at a Feb. 6 exhibition at the Roosevelt Art Space and invited him to create a couple pieces for the fourth annual Urban Gallery Exhibition. The school also asked if he would create his work in front of a live audience, something that he had never done before and was skeptical about doing.
“It was like pulling teeth to make it happen,” he said.
Breakdancing is dangerous as is, but doing it with a live audience posed a challenge. On top of that, ASU did not give the artist much space. His exhibit was set up on the second floor of the University Center, in the elevator alcove – a space that looked roughly equivalent to a 12X12 room.
In the confined space, he had to make room for his DJ’s equipment as well as his canvas. The university also required him to tarp the entire area to prevent paint from splattering the walls, which made the space look more like a quarantined hospital ward than an exhibit.
Nonetheless, Sentrock managed to work well with what he had. With a friend known as B-boy Shadoe, Sentrock produced a series of displays for his audience, moving spontaneously to the beat of the music.
Sentrock said that he always receives good feedback about his artwork because it is something people have never seen before. That is one thing he likes about what he does, having the ability to present this form of art to another group of people.
Sentrock wants his artwork to inspire others, but encourages them to create a style unique to them rather than picking up his.
Contact the reporter at ldisanti@asu.edu
