jose parla 'adaptation and translation'

new york based artist josé parlá, will be showing in a ‘spectacular’ and ‘much anticipated’ first solo show in london at the elms lesters painting rooms. the show will include a new body of work, intriguing installations and museum-scale site specific new paintings. in conjunction with the exhibition elms lester painting rooms will publish an 80 page limited edition catalogue, fully illustrated and with an essay by curator michael betancourt, and an introduction by author and collector saeb eigner.

the tamiami trail 2008, mixed media on canvas

born in miami in 1973, josé parlá moved to puerto rico in early age and then settled in brooklyn; as a result, his relationship with the cities he has been living in has enormously influenced his work. josé parlá began working with aerosol paints on different surfaces of city walls; these surfaces have since become the basis of his paintings. using found objects, symbols of the city’s essence, processed and reworked to find the exact shades of mould, rust or deterioration that are right for the composition. part of subways, and old newspapers are painstakingly added to recreate the very same textures and pulse of the cities through which the artist has moved since his childhood, in a creative process that can last for months.

elms lesters painting rooms: http://www.elmslesters.co.uk josé parlá: http://www.joseparla.com