Visual artist Iris Viviana Pérez was born in the Dominican Republic. She completed her higher art studies at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santo Domingo, where she currently teaches and has won awards for her educational work.A Fine Arts graduate (Cum Laude) from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), she has specialized in ceramics, printing, and history of art, through courses and workshops at several of the country’s institutions.In 2009 she co-founded the Laboratorio Evolutivo de Arte Contemporáneo (Evolutionary Laboratory of Contemporary Art) and has taken part in international fairs, biennials and projects in several countries in Central, North and South America, as well as in Europe and Asia.The mayor of Tegucigalpa, Honduras declared Iris a distinguished visitor during the AIP-UNESCO Inter-regional Meeting. The artist was presented with a medal of recognition from the FAO for her performance installation “Danza del Hambre” (Hunger Dance). Iris was invited to sit on the selection panel for the 2005 Ford Conservation and Environment awards. In 2007 she took part in the artists in residence projects at LE PARC in Pampelonne and at PAF in Reims, both in France.Iris Pérez was chosen to represent the Dominican Republic at the 4th and 5th International Art Biennials in Beijing, at the National Art Museum of Beijing, China in 2010 and 2012.Since 2011 the artist has been working on the Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) Sculpture Monument in Santo Cerro, La Vega, Dominican Republic, commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism.