Don Perlis

Don Perlis (born 1941 in Bronx, New York) is an American realist painter whose painting "Floyd" was reproduced in a large scale printed format and subsequently received widespread attention after having been placed on billboards in major American cities during the George Floyd protests. These printed reproductions were prominently displayed in New York City in Times Square, in West Hollywood in Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.., A recration of the painting by Perlis was set to go up in Minneapolis where the homicide of George Floyd occurred but it was rejected by Clear Channel the owner of the billboard on which it was to be placed.

Perlis's first public exhibition was in 1970 at the Whitney Museum of American Art titled "22 Realists" an exhibition which also included the work of William Bailey, Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Malcolm Morley, and Philip Pearlstein.

In 2018, Denise Bibro Fine Art held a solo exhibition of Perlis's work. Also in 2018 the National Academy of Design showed Perlis's monumental multi-painting instilllation "Trumpworld' in another solo exhibition. Then in 2020 was then a subsequent exhibition of works from his "Trumpworld' series at Solomon Fine Arts at Solomon Fine Art in Manhattan. In fro. April 18 to May 28, 2025 Ilon gallery in Harlem has staged a solo exhibition of his work titled "Don Perlis' New York".

Art critic Donald Kuspit writing in Whitehot Magazine says of Perlis's work ...Donald Perlis is the Pieter Bruegel of our times. Bruegel’s works were “sharp or sarcastic” and “provocative”—socially critical—and ruthlessly realistic."...