Walls, Diaries and Paintings
As many of you know, I have a love affair with graffiti. I saw an exhibition in NYC in 2011 that really spoke to me and took the art of graffiti to a new level. Walls, Diaries, and Paintings at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, showed the work of Miami-born, Brooklyn-based artist Jose Parla. Parla created 15 new, mixed-media works that documented urban life in such diverse cities as New York, Istanbul, Havana, and Tokyo.
Using a combination of free-form, calligraphic markings and urban graffiti, Parla has recreated the sense of excitement, danger, and vibrancy inherent in city living. He has managed to capture both a sense of history and a feeling of modern edge at the same time.
I always love when galleries are transformed and for this exhibition, the main hallway was used for a site specific installation that perfectly ushered you into the main room.
The pay phone was the perfect, authentic touch.
He captured the essence of so many international cities and many of his pieces feel as though they could have been torn off the walls of a building.
Others pieces are more abstract in nature and make use of swirling and curling calligraphic markings.
The dimensionality and layers of city life are captured in wonderful, highly textured detail.
5 comments:
FABULOUS STUFF!!!!! I love all that peeling off, and layers of writing.
Wow, what an incredible exhibition! It reminds me of a piece of the Berlin Wall that I saw in Wiesbaden last year.
I love graffiti/street art and all the layers. Jose Parla's faces on the wall look so life like. I love them. Thanks for sharing.
WOW! I wish you could have seen the LA exhibit at the LA Museum of Art. It was GIGANTIC! It went on and on and on. Amazing. It STILL inspires me.
Makes me want to reproduce some of this on my work table. Just awesome.
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