Art critics talk about exhibitions, artists and art movements.
Take note. They’re in the know.
AS SEEN IN
“Nothing is as it seems in Erik Parra’s History by Choice at Eleanor Harwood Gallery. At first glance, the paintings of domestic interiors appeared so banal that I almost passed them by, but a faint, disquieting strangeness about the depicted spaces gave me pause.”
—Charmaine Koh, visual artist and writer
“Erik Parra: History by Choice at Eleanor Harwood Gallery”
Art Practical, May 18, 2018
“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. The fragile strangeness of ordinary objects is also evident in sculptures of potted cactuses, books and decorative knickknacks, all made from painted tissue paper.”
—Christopher Knight, Art critic, recipient of 2020 Pulitzer Prize for criticism
“Review: Uncharted seas in ‘How to Build a Foghorn’ at Samuel Freeman Gallery”
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 9, 2016
“…Erik Parra’s mixed-media paintings depict military/industrial buildings — warehouses and bunkers in red and blue — in remote, bleak locations, seen distantly as if from a helicopter; some of these examples of “Desert Modernism” have caught on fire.”
—DeWitt Cheng, art critic, curator, teacher and blogger
“‘Myths of Progress’ Explores Post-illusionism”
East Bay Express, Feb. 29, 2012
“Erik Parra is showing drawings, paintings, and a pair of installations in Expectator, i.e, “spectator” plus “expectation.” Sports as an arena for vicarious audience participation is hardly a new idea, but in these deadpan works, all conventional heroics and romance vanish. A pup tent and cooler chest sit blankly on a mountain plain (“American Campsite Nocturne No. 1”); rock formations resembling huge black-and-white photos rolled into cylinders or cones stand hemmed in by ramshackle walkways (“Observation Deck” series); a sports stadium is seen by night from aloft, its human participants an undifferentiated mass (“Metric,” “Untitled (madness)”); and a speedway explosion goes unnoticed by its fans — as well as a blimp above, as oblivious as the ship in Breughel’s ‘Fall of Icarus.’”
—DeWitt Cheng, art critic, curator, teacher and blogger
“Out and About at Zughaus, Kroswork, and WE Artspace”
East Bay Express, April 20, 2011
“Between Currencies
Texas-raised artist Erik Parra’s collage works prominently feature photographic images with an abiding retro aesthetic (probably because they appear to be actual old photographs), dappled with blobs or confetti-like clouds of color. The appealing result is vibrant and surprising, humorous but also a bit eerie, as colors creep into a black-and-white plane like so many stills from a forgotten, more austere version of Pleasantville (1998). Though perhaps it’s irrelevant to the ideas behind Parra’s art, this critically skewed lens on images of the not-so-distant past seems curiously complementary to the recent premier of Mad Men’s fourth season.”
—Sam Stander, arts & entertainment writer
“Pick of the Week”
The San Francisco Bay Guardian, vol. 44, no. 43
July 28 – August 3, 2010
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Exhibitions, being an artist and an educator, art and art history, philosophy, social and political commentary, they’re all on the table.