Born in 1989 in Miami, Jason Seife is the first-generation child of parents who are Syrian and Cuban. He grew up with decorative carpets in the family house—what most of us call Oriental or Persian carpets—handwoven fields of interlocking arabesques, palmettes, and vase shapes, double and triple bordered. These intricate Middle Eastern visions are the springboard for Seife’s art, which recalibrates the exuberant patterns into modern expression—bright symmetries painted in acrylic and oil on canvas. More recently, Seife created distressed carpets in acrylic on concrete. “It’s a mixture of limestone mortar and natural dyes,” he told artMarket magazine. “It’s great to add a second dynamic to the artwork instead of just being flat paintings. They become 3-D and sculptural.” And archaeological, too. At the Pérez, Seife is having his first solo exhibition in the U.S. —Laura Jacobs