José Parlá
Biography
José Parlá (b.1973) creates paintings and multidisciplinary works based on his interest in hybrid forms of abstraction. He draws inspiration from various mediums including music, calligraphy, dance, and the decay of urban architecture and advertisements. His works poetically challenge ideas about language, politics, identity, and how we define places and spaces. Parlá's relationship with mark-making is physical and textural, incorporating the body's gestures into a painterly stream of consciousness composed of areas of addition, erasure, and layering that challenges the status quo of visual culture.
Parlá was born to Cuban parents in Miami, Florida and lives and works out of Brooklyn, New York. He studied painting at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia; the New World School of the Arts, Miami, Florida; and Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida.