A couple weeks ago, Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York opened up a solo show from Jose Parla entitled Anonymous Vernacular. One of the things that stands out to us about the Cuban-American artist’s work are the rich textures and complex layers he creates in each of his pieces, a collage of oil paints, graffiti inspired scrawl, acrylic finishes, and torn advertisments. Along with fourteen gritty new paintings, the Brooklyn-based artist has also included a reworked found object sculpture that speaks to the issue of homelessness.
He further states – “The anonymity of actions and marks made in a city can amount to an ever-evolving contemporary vernacular – the city as text. A name or message on a wall, homeless people, pushing their makeshift homes in a cart, layers of ripped posters, or an old tarp covering a hole, broken subway tiles, erosion on a steel panel in an alleyway filled with trash, all part of our humanity’s anonymous vernacular.”
Photo credit: @marc, @jeffreyallengray, @chloelorriecourtney, @xtocharles, @karenrobinovitz, artist & gallery.
Discuss Jose Parla here.
