Böcker av Jose Parla

Parla‿s painterly meditation on life and death in the wake of his perilous Covid encounter. The immersive, monumental paintings documented here were the first works that José Parlá created after his recovery from a life-threatening battle against Covid. The series was installed in the iconic Beaux-Arts Court at the Brooklyn Museum in 2022.

'Polarities' materialized in the wake of the pandemic when the artist felt its impacts acutely; after months spent in a hospital with COVID19, Parlá's doctors weren't sure if he'd ever paint again. But, an artist to his core, he proved them wrong, and the works that came about carry a heightened sense of spirituality and empathy. More than ever, Parlá sees within his practice the threads that unite us and how our actions (and passivity) become our legacy. A prominent characteristic of his work, the paintings in Polarities share a strong sense of centrum: a heart or prime mover from which bold brushstrokes and elegant lines of script emanate. These marks indicate the beginning of time, the moment from which every passing day and its events have radiated, crashed, and splintered. They are maps and topographies, micro and macro ecosystems.