Emily Sarah Perina (ESP)

Emily Perina (aka ESP) is a New York based artist. Her crafts range from mixed media sculpture, to poetry, to welding, and most recently, taxidermy. Her passion is to consistently strive to find just the perfect medium to convey complicated feelings. She often centers her work around attempting to accept her anxieties while pushing herself to adapt new practices to portray these feelings in her work. Found objects and items from nature are featured heavily and mirror her need to discard emotions into the artwork she creates.

Her work is a combination of carefully considered materials constructed to exemplify personal feelings and emotions. It centers on her own experiences with people and my surroundings, generally tending to be uncomfortable and unpleasant. There are also oddly cute components that add an even more unsettling vibe to the work as a whole. She has a fascination for these ideas being forcefully combined to properly portray my feelings of dissatisfaction and anxieties.

Animals and nature are very important to her visions and remain constant in her work. Whether just the fur or even the entire animal figure, She has always been fascinated by animals and their behaviors. They possess purely raw instinct that they do not feel ashamed about.

Recently, she has also been exploring her sexuality, feelings both addressed and unaddressed. Emily has been re-examining what has been taught to her when she was younger versus behaviors she has now as an adult. Using discarded lingerie, from different times in her life, she combines it with other found objects and contrasting materials to convey anxieties and sarcasm.

Additionally, by using a variety of textures and materials, Emily strives to break the traditional barriers created by galleries, and encourages viewers to touch and interact with her wall sculptures.