One of our favorite artists, José Parlá, is opening an exhibit entitled Memory Documents in Galleria Il Trifoglio Nero located in Genoa, Italy. When we first saw Parla’s work, his striking color balance and effortless motion drew us in. We’ve been a fan ever since.

As Manon Slome from New York’s Chelsea Art Museum writes, “Parlá is fascinated with how the city constructs itself and functions as a palimpsest, upon which the experiences of those who pass through are materially inscribed on decaying walls. He sees the city as a vertical grid, from the bridges, to the streets, down to the subterranean warrens of train tunnels, pipes and wires connecting to people living life inside apartments. The construction of the city and the passing of time find their equivalent in the way he attacks a painting, how he sees the need to layer his surfaces the way the city itself is layered.” Parlá named this installation Memory Documents because his works become fragments of places he’s been.

/// Exhibit Details

Galleria Il Trifoglio Nero Palazzo Ducale
Piazza Matteotti 80-82
Genova, 16123, Italy
Exhibit runs from March 29th – May 10th 2008

/// About the artist

Born in Miami in 1973 into a family of Cuban exiles, José Parlá moved to Puerto Rico at a very early age before returning to Miami again when he was nine. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and only recently traveled to Cuba for the first time. His life, like his work, is therefore at once extremely particular and generally reflective of the wanderings of today’s urban populations. Parlá’s work attempts to extract and synthesize fragments of urban environments in flux and reproduce them using the materials and methods of architectural construction: cement, wood, vinyl as well as those of traditional art like paper, paint, powdered dye, wax, and ink.

/// Cool Hunting Video on José Parlá

[Photo Credit]