Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture is
the first commissioned artwork for the BAM FIsher and José Parlá’s
first commission in Brooklyn. The painting, which measures 37 wide
by 7 feet tall, continues on Parlá's plan to build a painterly
history through layers of calligraphic and gestural marks. These
works are based on a few distinct types of source material: the
purely abstract, which comes in the form of dabbing, gesturing, and
layering of paint; collaged materials and detritus from the
streets, which may include type or other writing and images; and
writing, easily the dominant material in these works, which fills
and often obscures its contents in successive layers. Writing and
seeing are linked in several levels in Parlá’s semiotically
inflected paintings; both modes often overlap and are present in
the same painting. This serves as a reminder that we are not
passive bystanders; we are active participants in a world that our
senses produce for us, from moment to moment.
Parlá's recent projects and exhibitions include Wrinkles of
the City: Havana, Cuba, a collaboration with French artist JR
for the 11th Havana Biennale; Performing Painting, an
exhibition with Wendy White at the Savannah College of Art and
Design; and an exhibition with his brother Rey, at the renowned
Paris boutique collete, entitled Parlá Frères:
U.T.O.P.I.A. Parlá will participate in the upcoming Water Tank
Project curated by Mary Jordan and Pippa Cohen, in which an
international roster of artists will create unique works on rooftop
water towers across New York City. Other upcoming exhibitions
include Haunch of Venison 2013 and Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
2014.
