"Roots" by José Parlá

Based on an exhibition at SCAD Museum of Art presents the artist's relationships to the rich contexts of cities he's visited and the experiences that shaped his practice. Grounded in Parl 's personal first generation Cuban American immigrant family story and an ever-evolving practice that concerns elsewhere communities and their contribution to America. Roots offers a new visual relationship with its pictorially contemplative environment to consider connections between local history, one's past, present, and the future; to imagine or ever create one's own universal truth and personal harmony now more than ever. Parl produces a gestural landscape with juxtaposed characters, hieroglyphs and words within both paintings and sculptures that are deliberately created to serve as a carrier of meaning. The titles of his works often create playful connotations as signifiers to specific places or times, thus becoming a key element to decode the work. Parl spent his formative years immersed in the thriving underground art scenes of Miami, while traveling often to other cities like: Beijing, Havana, Istanbul, New York, Paris, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, and San Juan, amongst many other countries where the multicultural environment and social processes deeply impacted his perception of urban space. In his practices, Jos Parl highlights the cultural bonds between communities and the expression thereof.

Hardcover 

96 pages