Opening September 10th, 2012 – 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music is pleased to announce the unveiling of José Parlá's Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture. It is the first commissioned public artwork for BAM's new Richard B. Fisher building and Parlá’s first commission in Brooklyn. The unveiling is accompanied by a small show of Parlá’s paper based Mono-Transfers, which were used in the creation of this work and act as a mirror-like element towards documenting the painting process.
The painting, which measures 37 x 7 feet, expands on Parlá's process of building a painterly history through layers of calligraphic and gestural marks.
His paintings are composed from several distinct types of source material: the purely abstract (painterly) dabbing, gesture and layering of paint; collaged materials and detritus from the streets of the world (and that may include type or other writing and images); writing, which is easily the dominant material of these works, filling and often obscuring its contents in successive layers.
Language, writing and seeing are linked at several levels in Parlá’s semiotically inflected paintings—both modes are often overlapping and present in the same painting. This glimpse makes us aware that we are not mere passive bystanders, but active participants in the world we see, that our senses produce for us moment-to-moment.
Parlá's recent projects include a collaboration with French artist JR for the 11th Havana Biennale entitled: Wrinkles of the City: Havana, Cuba; a new book on this project will be published by Damiani and Standard Press along with a screening clip of their documentary of the same title during Art Basel Miami Beach at The Standard Hotel; the exhibition Performing Painting with Wendy White at the Savannah College of Art and Design, currently on view through November 3rd. José, alongside his brother Rey, will participate in an exhibition entitled: Parlá Frères: U.T.O.P.I.A., opening September 3rd at the renowned collete in Paris.
Additionally, Parlá will participate in the upcoming Water Tank Project curated by Mary Jordan and Pippa Cohen in the spring of 2013. An international roster of artists will create unique works on rooftop water towers across New York City in order to raise awareness of the precariousness of water as a natural resource.
Upcoming exhibitions include Haunch of Venison 2013 and Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery 2014.
This work by José Parlá was made possible through the support of the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust.
Richard B. Fisher
321 Ashland Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217
BAM.org
