Matilde Pérez Cerda

Place: Santiago

Born: 1916

Death: 2014

Biography:

Matilde Pérez Cerda (December 7, 1916 – October 1, 2014) was a Chilean visual artist who specialized in kinetic art. She was a pioneer of modern and kinetic art in Chile. Her best known public pieces include Túnel Cinético (Kinetic Tunnel) in 1970, and el Friso, which was originally constructed at the Centro Comercial Apumanque in 1982, but is now located at the University of Talca. Pérez was born in Santiago, Chile, and studied art in the University of Chile, where she was a student of Pablo Burchard and Jorge Caballero. She moved to Paris, France, during the early 1960s, where she became interested in kinetic art and joined the movement. Her work is characterized by experimentation with the possibilities of creation of virtual movement through the optical illusion, and is based on the investigation of the visual effects of abstract forms and the use of color. Pérez opened more than fifty art shows worldwide during her career.