JOSÉ PARLÁ | PLANET ROCK

Private Collection, Houston (acquired directly from the artist)

José Parlá is a Brooklyn-based artist with roots in graffiti and street art. He is best known for is murals and large-scale compositions which resemble city walls that have accrued years of graffiti, posters, and fliers. He blends graffiti-like curvy gestures, calligraphy, and personal inscriptions with blurred color fields produced by layering techniques and mediums.

“My earliest paintings were made on walls at night. My thought and impulse behind the gesture was as primitive as that of cavemen marking and drawing in their dwellings to assert their existence in a place and time."

(José Parlá, “Research and Memory”, Walls, Diaries, and Paintings, May 2001)