JOSÉ PARLÁ – IT’S YOURS
2020-02-10José Parlá: It’s Yours will be the first solo museum exhibition of the internationally renowned artist in New York City. The new paintings evoke the artist’s personal connection to the Bronx, as well as the borough’s influence, which have helped to shape how Parlá views painting history and cities around the world. José Parlá: It’s Yours is organized by guest curator Manon Slome.
While celebrating Parlá’s roots in the hip-hop energy of the Bronx, this series of paintings address the suffering caused by redlining policies, the waves of displacement imposed by gentrification, and structural racism. It’s Yours encourages viewers to question ownership in New York’s rapidly changing neighborhoods.
Parlá’s work is deeply connected to experimentation and innovation to conjure complex memory abstractions as he challenges traditional painting methods. The rich building up of surface and Parlá’s signature gestural line resemble the layers of city walls, reflecting the movement and textures of neighborhoods, the marks and traces people leave behind, and the energy and challenges of the streets. In addition to large-scale paintings in the museum’s gallery, the exhibition features Parlá’s sketchbooks and drawings from age ten to seventeen as well as site specific responses in the lobby and outdoors that seek to integrate the museum with the city.
Opposite – Detail Social Visual / Studio Gaze, 2020
Exhibition runs from February 26th to August 16th, 2020
The Bronx Museum
1040 Grand Concourse
Bronx
New York 10456
