Erik Parker

Sneak, 2009,  acrylic on canvas ,  51 x 46 cm

Guru, 2008-2009, acrylic on canvas,  251.5 x 228.6 x 7.6 cm

Stuck, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 109.5 x 101 cm

Hand to Mouth, 2009,  acrylic on canvas, 2  x162 x 111 cm

Shape Shift,  2009,  acrylic on canvas,  2 x 132 x 81 cm

Global, 2008-2009 , acrylic and enamel on canvas, 132.1 x 106.7 cm

Torn, 2008-2009, acrylic and enamel on canvas, 50.8 x 45.7 cm

About the Artist

Parker’s painting draws on references to widely differing periods and painters in the history of art – as well as to graffiti, animation and Street Art.

There is a direct affinity with the comic-strip-inspired energy of American painters like Carroll Dunham, Philip Guston and Peter Saul, but the rich detail and complexity of the figures make equally clear references to the Italian Mannerist painter Giuseppe Archimboldo and his visually playful portraits of people made of branches, fruit, flowers and fish. The masks, the distortions and the existential undertone also incorporate modernist icons like Picasso and Bacon. There are lyrical features and arabesque interlacings that are fine – almost decorative – thus also turning the thoughts to Botticelli’s La Primavera.

Parker draws in visual components as a composer combines rhythms and notes. His pictures are trippy and funky, humorous and ironic, grotesque and touching, surrealistic and baroque – as is our reality in the year 2010.

More about the Artist

A visionary painter inspired by underground comics, graffiti, hip-hop, noise music, and conspiracy theories, as well as the art of Picasso, Bacon, and Basquiat, Erik Parker makes portraits of fantastical characters that are frightening in physical appearance and visually compelling in color and form. His current show at Faurschou in Copenhagen focuses completely on heads, which exquisitely exploit both psychological and psychedelic realms.

Erik Parker at Honor Fraser Gallery

Erik Parker at Paul Kasmin Gallery

Erik Parker at Faurschou, Copenhagen

Posted by Carmelita Caruana