In Media Res

José Parlá (born 1973) has received critical acclaim for his works, which lie at the boundary between abstraction and calligraphy. Composed from layers of paint, gestural drawing and found ephemera, his work evokes the histories of urban environments. José Parlá is a documentarian of city life. Using the backdrop of New York and many other towns, he re-makes in paint what can appear to be photorealist fragments of what he sees in the chaos and rush of the metropolis. His paintings...
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José Parlá (born 1973) has received critical acclaim for his works, which lie at the boundary between abstraction and calligraphy. Composed from layers of paint, gestural drawing and found ephemera, his work evokes the histories of urban environments. José Parlá is a documentarian of city life. Using the backdrop of New York and many other towns, he re-makes in paint what can appear to be photorealist fragments of what he sees in the chaos and rush of the metropolis. His paintings reflect the accumulated memories and experiences, the walls that show a place that was, but no longer is -- built over, renewed in some other configuration. Parlá paints revelations -- transcriptions of the process -- proof of the history of our neighborhoods. Parlá's work shows that words, signs, and marks come to mean more; over time, in this symphony of diversity, both incongruous and in harmony, that surrounds our contemporary life. His practice originated in graffiti's experimental and collaborative approaches during the eighties. These markings expose his drive to say or divulge the passing of time, in the moment. In Media Res concentrates on the body of Parlá's work that stems from his experiences of living and traveling in various countries: his time in Puerto Rico, his childhood in South Florida in the 1980s, extended journeys throughout the southern United States and Central America in the 1990s and most recent travels throughout Europe and Asia. Spanning painting, watercolor, photography and sculpture, this volume shows Parlá at his most versatile and cosmopolitan. Parlá was recently commissioned by Barclays Center in Brooklyn (January 2013) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (September 2012), as well as having recently held solo exhibitions at Haunch of venison (London, U.K.) and Yuka Tsuruno gallery (Tokyo, Japan). In 2013, Parlá was added to the collection of the British Museum, (London, U.K.). José Parlá lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.