JOSÉ PARLÁ: SURFACE BODY / ACTION SPACE – Opening September 12, 2015

JOSÉ PARLÁ      SURFACE BODY / ACTION SPACE SEPTEMBER 12 - OCTOBER 31 OPENING SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 5-7 PM Photo by Rey Parlá Surface Body / Action Space, an installation of new paintings and sculpture by JOSÉ PARLÁ opens on 12 September 2015 at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery and Mary Boone Gallery. The title Surface Body / Action Space discloses various modes of practice and philosophy that define Parlá's work. In his painting and sculpture, heavy textures and thick application of paint form a layered substructure that conveys weight, volume and permanence, while veils of color, rapid calligraphic marks and remnants of text form a palimpsest-like surface suggesting the ephemeral: memory, the traces of lives and time. Like fragments of city walls, the works evoke societies in upheaval and solemnize the distinctly human impulse to leave a record of our presence. Parlá's Cuban American heritage is a duality that infuses all of his work. Where the urban wall structures signify fixed geographical-political boundaries, the gestural performance symbolizes marks of personal freedom. Parlá sees his work as "erasing the hyphen" between the two words, while similarly bridging polarities between painting and sculpture, maximal and minimal, abstraction and representation. José Parlá was born to Cuban parents in Miami, Florida, in 1973 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His monumental commissioned works may be seen at One World Trade Center, The Barclays Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAM Fisher Building. The solo exhibition José Parlá: Segmented Realities remained on view through May this year at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and his work is included in the 2015 Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba, through June. In addition to the work concurrently on view at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, Parlá presents Segmented Realities with a new series of sculpture with an outdoor installation at The Standard High Line Plaza in New York City running through October 31st. The exhibition Surface Body / Action Space at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, 505 West 24 Street, and Mary Boone Gallery, 541 West 24 Street, is also on view through 31 October 2015. For more information, please contact the respective galleries.