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Versione
italiana
20 May – 21 June 2003
hours: Tues-Sat 11 – 19, closed holidays
Galleria Paolo Curti/Annamaria
Gambuzzi & Co. is pleased to announce the exhibition by the
American artist Erik Parker, one of the outstanding figures on the
international scene of contemporary painting. Born in 1968, the
artists lives and works in New York. This is his second show at the
gallery in Milan, after the great success of the first, held in May
2001.
The paintings of Erik Parker
are full of color, featuring graphic and at times psychedelic
effects, always in fascinating compositions that represent an
interweaving of inebriating visions and cultural references. The
imagery in his work always has a historical scope, influenced above
all by the more obscure aspect of American history over the last
thirty years. H.C. Westermann, Peter Saul, The Hairy Who, Pedro
Bell, Mel Casas, Royal Robertson are the characters Erik Parker
observes, which represent, for him, the obscure signals of his
world. Parker chronicles recent and past historic events. He uses a
method similar to genealogical tables, tracing elements, influences
and overtones of specific moments, places or personalities. At
first glance the list seems random; persons, dates and movements
seem to have been assembled in keeping with the principle of
chance. The familiar and the unfamiliar are put side by side,
seeming to have the same importance in the composition. Actually
these paintings are the result of meticulous research by the artist
on subjects that interest him deeply. Through these random
associations and a technique that constitutes, in the artist’s
definition, an attempt to make a visual equivalent of hip-hop
music, Parker makes the observer take different paths with which to
grasp the essence of a particular period.
The themes of the works have ranged from pop to punk, the myth of
the hero to political satire.
In the exhibition in Milan Parker shows a series of large and
medium-sized paintings, including Tougher than leather, a work on
the life of Mussolini, Space is the place, which makes reference to
Italian Futurism, and This bitch of a life, the work that gives the
show its title, inspired by the great Nigerian musician Fela Kuti,
who died in 1997, a forceful champion of human rights imprisoned
for his activities, whose human and musical history has always
greatly intrigued Parker.
Erik Parker has recently
participated in international exhibitions including Nation at the
Kunstverein in Frankfurt, Intervista con la pittura curated by
Gianni Romano at Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa in Venice, and
Painting Pictures curated by Gys van Tyl at the Kunstmuseum of
Wolfsburg. His works have also been seen in the exhibition The
Americans curated by Mark Sladen at the Barbican Art Galleries in
London in 2001, and in the two exhibitions curated by Renato
Barilli, Officina America at Villa delle Rose in Bologna, and
Dubuffet e l’arte dei graffiti at Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia in
2002. A solo show of his works was held at the Cornerhouse
Contemporary Art Museum in Manchester.
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