Los Angeles Times Review
How to Build a Foghorn at Samuel Freeman Gallery has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
Day for Night
42 in. x 30 in.
Acrylic, marker and spray paint on canvas
2016
How to Build a Foghorn has been reviewed by the LA Times
I am over the moon to share this press clipping with you. Christopher Knight has been one of my favorite writers since I purchased his book of essays back in Graduate School.
From the LA Times:
Uncharted Seas in "How to Build a Foghorn" at Samuel Freeman
By Christopher Knight, Art Critic, " … Moody and dreamlike nocturnal landscapes in paintings by Erik Parra juxtapose suburban living rooms and backyard patios with vast starry skies, as if both are alien habitats ... "
For the entire essay click here.
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How to Build a Foghorn
Samuel Freeman presents How to Build a Foghorn, an exhibition with Mie Olise, Erik Parra, Craig Kauffman and Bridget Beck.
Alongside the Noble and the Spledid
42 in. x 54 in.
Acrylic, Marker and spray paint on canvas
2016
How to Build a Foghorn
July 16- August 27
Opening Reception July 16 from 5 -8pm
Samuel Freeman Gallery
2639 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Greetings friends. I wanted to let you know that I have been hard at work making some new paintings and three-dimensional paintings (sculptures) that will be part of an installation I will be building, starting later this week! The dust is almost settled and then we can celebrate. I hope that you will be able to join me in LA for the opening, if not I will certainly be posting a lot of images. Please check back for more news.
Thank you for your support, as you know, it means the world to me.
Kindly,
Erik Parra
From the Samuel Freeman website:
"Samuel Freeman presents How to Build a Foghorn, an exhibition with Mie Olise, Erik Parra, Craig Kauffman and Bridget Beck. These artists translate the hidden language of the man-made landscape through painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture. We navigate our daily passage through a subconscious negotiation where expectations are met constantly and unnoticeably, but when the fog rolls in it creates an ambiguous environment without the normal cues for location or definition. The gathered works in How to Build a Foghorn do not so much warn of impending danger as reveal a different understanding of the reality all around us. Expected constructions shape-shift into novel configurations, ships, tree houses, benches and structures, while flowers become skyscrapers who have simply forgotten that scale is a matter of perspective."
For more information please click here.
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Monster Drawing Rally Tonight
Southern Exposure’s Annual Monster Drawing Rally is tonight! Erik Parra will be drawing from 8:00-9:00 pm.
Monster Drawing Rally 2016
Southern Exposure’s Annual Monster Drawing Rally is tonight! and I will be drawing from 8:00-9:00 pm. Come out and say hello this is a super fun event that supports an important and great organization. You can also follow along with all the fun on social media by looking for the hashtag #MDR2016, I will definitely be posting pics!
From the press release:
The famous live drawing event and fundraiser comes to newly-opened art space Minnesota Street Project.
EVENT INFORMATION
Date: Friday, June 24, 2016
Time: 6:00 to 11:00 PM
Tickets: $15 SoEx Members / $20 general public, available at soex.org/mdr2016 and at the door
Off-Site Location: Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
Southern Exposure is pleased to announce its famous annual Monster Drawing Rally, a live drawing event and fundraiser that will take place on Friday, June 24, 2016 at Minnesota Street Project. Over the course of the night, 122 artists at all stages of their careers take shifts to draw for an hour in front a live audience, bringing their private studio practices to the public. As spectators spy on the creative process, sketches morph into full-fledged artworks made from collage, watercolor, ink, and graphite or even performative acts. Finished drawings are immediately available for $75 each.
For more information please click here.
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Perpetual Sunset
Erik Parra has been invited to participate in a group exhibition titled Perpetual Sunset at 2731 Prospect Contemporary Art in Cleveland, OH.
Arrangement with Bunny and Striped Vase
I am happy to share that I have been invited to participate in a group exhibition titled Perpetual Sunset at 2731 Prospect Contemporary Art in Cleveland, OH. The exhibition opens this Saturday, June 17 and will run through July 30, 2016. I will also be giving an Artist talk at the gallery on Saturday July 23 at 2:00pm, so if you are going to be in Cleveland or know anyone who will be please let them know! A bit about the exhibit from the 2731 Prospect website:
“Perpetual Sunset features new work in painting and print media by Brandon Juhasz, Aaron Koehn and Erik Parra. This trio of artists are linked via their mutual interest in fabricated realities that seem to be subversively lurking in every corner of contemporary life. Their works collectively examine the odd visual and psychological slippages that occur within a swirl of glossy corporate branding, stock advertising imagery and manufactured interior spaces .…”
For more information about this exhibit please click here.
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In This Place
Erik Parra is participating in the upcoming c2c/wc project space show, In This Place.
Still Life for Jolene I
Acrylic, marker and spray paint on panel
14in. x 11in.
2016
I am excited to announce that I am participating in the upcoming c2c/wc show, “in this place”. If you are around for the opening on Feb. 6th come through! I would love to see you and you can see one of two paintings that I started and completed in 2016!
From the Gallery's Facebook page: "the artists "in this place" document their personal position in a landscape while creating situations that can experientially teleport a viewer into that space as well. By addressing fundamental aspects of how we experience a local environment, such as angle, color, proportions, and the depiction of content, they indicate not only their physical experience of the represented space, but also how they are engaging emotionally and intellectually with their surroundings at that moment as well. This is true whether the work exhibited is a more traditional take on landscape, such as that from Diane Olivier or Kerry Law, or a more conceptual rendition, such as work by Andrew Prayzner or Eilish Cullen. This exhibition also includes artists Robert Minervini, Erik Parra, Chris Ballantyne and Karen Schifano who utilize an approach from a middle ground between these two extremes of practice, which effectively ties the work featured in the exhibition together into a singular comment on the nature of a material existence.
The exhibition will open with a reception on Saturday, February 6 from 6-9pm. It will run through March 6 with gallery hours on Sundays from 12-5pm. c2c project space is at 1695 18th Street #413 in San Francisco (cross streets are Carolina and Arkansas).
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mowaV.1 zine release and artist talk
mowa V1 zine
Colllage
Erik Parra talk on each devil his own and mowaV.1 zine
Transmission Gallery
770 West Grand Ave., Suite A
Oakland, CA 94612
From the gallery's Facebook Announcement :
"Join us during Oakland's First Friday events on January 8th for an artist talk from 7-8pm and a zine release. Erik Parra will be talking about his work in his current solo show each devil his own on view at Transmission Gallery through January 23, 2016.
"mowaV.1
Is the beginning of a book project that I started while creating the exhibition currently on view. mowa is a multiple volume, collage based zine that will also be published as hardbound, hand-stitched collection. Please stay tuned to this section for news and connect here for all of the latest news and information.
Thank You!
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each devil his own
Transmission Gallery is pleased to present the work of Erik Parra. each devil his own will be an exhibition of paintings, drawings and a site specific installation.
Foyer No. 1
Acrylic, Spray Paint and Marker on Panel
14in. x 11in.
2015
Foyer No. 2
Acrylic, Spray Paint and Marker on Panel
14in. x 11in.
2015
each devil his own
December 4, 2015 - January 23, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, December 4th 6-9pm
Transmission Gallery, 770 West Grand Avenue, Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612
Transmission Gallery is pleased to present the work of Erik Parra. each devil his own will be an exhibition of paintings, drawings and a site specific installation that draws on tropes of the horrific, mid-century aesthetics and politics to ask questions about the origins of certain current sociopolitical narratives in the vernacular of pictorial construction. In three small series of original compositions Parra conflates his personal history and knowledge with mid-century historical narratives in order to view important, current social concerns through the lens of history. This serves as an entryway into a process of constructing images that draw on our conceptions of space and the stories we tell ourselves in order to navigate the environments we build.
Interior with bricks, stairs and hutch
Acrylic with marker and spray paint
11in. x 14in.
2015
For this exhibition the interior plays host to a range of potential conversations related to aesthetics, politics and history. Central to this exhibition is an examination of postwar historical narratives; such as white flight and the American space program and their challenging effects on contemporary society. Both darkness and lightness are employed to present not only familiar looking interior spaces but also for their expressive narrative effect. Objects within each painted interior are chosen for the potential of their symbolic form to be both simultaneously loaded and banal. This duality then resonates with similar formal choices within the work and drives the potential to open new space to create productive dialogue with the attendant issues. Parra is interested in drawing on our collective cultural memory as informed by the histories of painting, film, aggressive underground music and radical politics in order to paint a critical, collective self-portrait at a very critical time.
There will be an opening reception Friday, December 4th 6-9pm.
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Installation Update
@home installation completed during residency at Project Grant in Buffalo, NY.
@home10 project completed during residency at Project Grant in Buffalo, NY.
Greetings! I have updated the installation section of the site to include @Home, the cool project that I made this past summer while in residence at Project Grant in Buffalo, NY. Through this residency I was able to work with an amazing community to create a really ambitious project.
From the Project Grant website:
"ERIK PARRA arrived on Monday, July 6, from San Francisco, to be an artist in resident for two weeks. Over the course of this time, we hosted Free Drawing and Painting Workshops at the Old First Ward Community Center. The works created became a part of an interactive public sculpture that the community members assisted on with the fabrication and design of. The grand opening of the piece happened for the City of Night Festival, Saturday, July 18, from 6pm-12am …. "
@Home
Interior Re-cycled shipping pallets, TyVek, Acrylic Paint, Various Student Artworks
2015
@Home
Interior Re-cycled shipping pallets, TyVek, Acrylic Paint, Various Student Artworks
2015
@Home
Exterior Re-cycled shipping pallets, TyVek, Acrylic Paint, Various Student Artworks
2015
For more information please click here.
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Botanica: All Things Plant Life
Erik Parra is participating in a group exhibition titled Botanica: All Things Plant LIfe at the Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts.
Still Life with Diamond Hutch and Arrangement 3
Ink, marker and watercolor on paper
15in. x 11in.
2015
Botanica: All Things Plant Life
A National Juried Exhibition
July 12 – September 6, 2015
I am extremely excited to be participating in a group exhibition titled Botanica: All Things Plant LIfe at the Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts.
The exhibit runs from July 12 through September 6, 2015. An opening reception will be held on Sunday July 12, from 3- 5 pm, admission is $5.
Unfortunately I will miss the opening as I will be in Buffalo, but I am available for a walk through of the exhibit upon my return to San Francisco in late July. If you are interested please send me a message.
About Botanica, from the Bedford Gallery website:
“From 16th Century Flemish painters, to Cézanne and the Post Impressionists, the color and variety found in plant life, as well as the potent symbolism, has made it a popular subject for still lifes and artist studies. Botanica asks artists to draw on these themes to create artwork that explores how plant life can be represented in a diverse reach of media.”
For more information about the exhibit please click here, and for more about the Bedford Gallery please click here.
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Project Grant
Project Grant, a socially engaged artist residency operated out of the home of artist, Tina Dillman, in Buffalo, New York has invited Erik Parra to be in residence during the Summer Program 2015.
Tina Dillman runs an artist residency called Project Grant out of her home in Buffalo, New York. photo: The Public
Project Grant
A socially engaged artist residency operated out of the home of artist, Tina Dillman
Buffalo, New York
Summer Program - 2015
I will be heading to Buffalo, NY on Monday, July 6, to be an artist in resident for two weeks. Over the course of this time, we will be hosting Free Drawing and Painting Workshops at the Old First Ward Community Center. The works created will become part of an interactive public sculpture that the community members will assist with in the fabrication and design of. The grand opening of the piece will be on display for the City of Night Festival, Saturday, July 18, 6pm-12am. This project is funded by the Emerging Leaders in the Arts Buffalo, and materials are provided by Hyatt’s and The Golden Foundation.
Project Grant, a socially engaged artist residency operated out of the home of artist, Tina Dillman, in Buffalo, New York.
Project Grant will also be doing a special one night only workshop as part of the First Friday Art Walk in Buffalo on Allen Street, in partnership with Indigo Gallery. This event is Friday, July 10, 6-9pm.
The next “Gathering” is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15 at 7pm. I will be the guest speaker for this session, sharing my views on growing up near the border as a Mexican-American in Texas, and my strong maternal ties.
Read more about Dillman and the artist residency in The Public’s coverage, “Tina Dillman’s Project Grant”. I ‘m mentioned as one of the West Site project artists.
If you would like to attend or more information, please send an email to: projectgrantbuffalo @ gmail dot com.
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soex auction
The Southern Exposure auction is one week away! I am happy to have donated a piece in support of this vital Bay Area Arts institution.
EQUILUX
Southern Exposure’s Annual Fundraiser and Art Auction
Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 6:00 PM
at Southern Exposure
3030 20th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
The Southern Exposure auction is one week away! I am happy to have donated a piece in support of this vital Bay Area Arts institution. The auction will take place on March 21, 2015 at SoEx's 20th street location in San Francisco. For more information on the auction, including advanced online bidding visit the SoEx auction website.
For more information about the tons of ways SoEx supports artists and the greater community visit the SOEX website.