Aprirà domani 28 Giugno l’ultima fatica del grandissimo Parra, “Same Old Song” all’interno degli spazi della HVW8 Gallery di Los Angeles pronta ad ospitare per la quinta volta tutto il talento e l’immaginario del grande artista Olandese.

Dopo “Kind Regrets“ risalente ad Ottobre 2012 aperta proprio qui e dopo la recente “And Wait for Something to Happen“ ospitata all’interno degli spazi della Ruttkowski68 Gallery di Colonia lo scorso Agosto, questo show segna il ritorno di uno degli artisti che maggiormente riesce a divertirci ed emozionarci. Siamo grandi fans di Parra del suo umorismo e della sua straripante verve sensuale e sessuale perciò ci aspettiamo l’ennesimo show ricco di chicche e di un corposo e caratteristico allestimento.

Quest’ultimo pare sarà interamente composto da una nuova serie di disegni e tele realizzate appositamente per l’occasione, con molta probabilità l’artista realizzare il consueto muro esterno della galleria ed attenderci (forse) qualche nuovo oggetto in ceramica realizzato con la consueta partnership con i ragazzi di CASE STUDYO.

Nell’attesa che ci separa da un corpo recap vi lasciamo ad alcune immagini in calce al nostro testo, dateci un occhiata e restate sintonizzati.

The works in Same Old Song are overturned wine glasses, leisure-suited perverts, and behind-the-bar-booty slaps arranged in compositions of red, white, blue, pink, Ben-Day dots, and stars. In all its orgiastic fervor, his work is foremost graphic in character: tightly controlled compositions, highly saturated colors, flood-filled silhouettes, flatness, and hard edges that are hallmarks of the comic tradition that Lichtenstein had notoriously usurped to conflate the proverbial high-and-low strata of the 1960s Pop movement.

While Lichtenstein’s early production was made for the gallery, Parra had his start in flyers, posters, and other media of advertorial nature. His works are visual literalizations of a dirty punchline. Sometimes they are art referential; other times they seem to be purely profane, both harmlessly witty and uncomfortably politically incorrect. When asked why he uses his trademark beaked humanoids, he claims that if he drew human faces, the figure becomes too familiar. Generalizations and types are more truthful than the personal.

Parra once described his work as “fast and freestyle” with an intent to un-complicate, purposefully limiting himself to a small color palette. This simplification makes his work all the more viral ­ it has the ability to travel through pervasive and accessible channels. Whether it¹s democratizing or artlessly commercial is a question already beat to exhaustion by Pop and Post-modern. Parra doesn¹t care. His is an example of the strength of graphic design. It shamelessly hijacks commercial systems of circulation and is propagated with both compositional sophistication and crudeness like a silk-gloved bitchslap, a force that gains institutional recognition incidentally, without solicitation. A commercial illustrator doesn’t just earn international gallery exhibitions in major art centers and murals in cultural institutions such as SF MOMA and MOCA without at least some published critical endorsement from an academic.

Parra is a graphic artist, designer, and musician living and working in Amsterdam. He has recently exhibited in New York, Antwerp, Cologne, San Francisco, and Tokyo. Same Old Song is his fifth solo exhibition at HVW8 Gallery.

HVW8 Art + Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave
Los Angeles CA 90036