Erik Parra | John Miranda: Artist Talk: Thursday October 5, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
ERIK PARRA is a contemporary Mexican-American artist. His paintings, drawings and collage draw on a collective, cultural memory and the history of painting and film. Interior spaces become cultural self-portraits. Particularly invested in post-war narratives that shape contemporary life, Parra draws upon personal memories of growing up in a “mid-century” modernist house and conflates those with more recent direct memories of interiors and design objects to create engaging hypothetical interiors. Rather than working from direct source material, he constructs images through a process of remembering, drawing, and improvising forms. He channels, through visual interpretation, narrative tensions informed by symbolism mined from the history of painting, existential philosophy, film, horror fiction, extreme music and politics.
"Architecture is supposed to keep us safe. To achieve this simple directive, we must navigate a complex system which effects both our personal and cultural psyches. We share experiences of a built environment colored by personal, political and practical realities that often feel simultaneously antagonistic and comforting. I make paintings and drawings that engage the visual tropes of contemporary spaces to reveal and revise the stories embedded in the environments we build."
— Erik Parra
Erik Parra was born in El Paso, Texas, and has exhibited internationally in alternative spaces, commercial galleries and museums. He has mounted exhibitions in San Francisco, Portland and Reno and group exhibitions in Berlin, Brazil, Los Angeles, London and New York. In the Bay Area Erik’s work has been exhibited at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, and Berkeley Art Center. His work is widely held in private and corporate collections in the US and abroad. He teaches at the California College of the Arts.
JOHN MIRANDA explores cultural identity and memory through an encaustic painting method, covering his canvas in dyed beeswax to create rich and highly textured pieces. Miranda's work pulls from his memory, from the spirit and resourcefulness of Chicano and paño art, and the objects rooted in his childhood to create a symbol-heavy, multilayered practice "mapping" environments based on his Mexican-American heritage. He works intuitively, never overthinking the composition of a work. Miranda's work takes on an attitude of Rasquachismo - an underdog perspective rooted in resourcefulness and adaptability, yet mindful of stance and style. He is influenced by Latinx styles that consist of equally spaced, never overlapping images to give each image the same level of importance. For him, encaustic as a material relates to life through its resilience: “Even if you break it, it can still come back together.”
“I was always surrounded by that desert landscape. I would walk as far as I could. I would go down to the neighborhood of San Felipe, where my cousin was. We were always swimming at the creek. So, I had this big sense that I could do anything I wanted. Life is good.”
— John Miranda
John Miranda was born in Del Rio, Texas, and received his BFA from University of Texas at Arlington. Miranda weaves stories of rural versus urban life throughout his work, referencing the contrasts in his social and bicultural upbringing. Strongly influenced by his five sisters who raised him during his formative years, the figure and identity are often intertwined. His layering of shapes creates an ephemeral quality and a sense of impermanence – here today and gone tomorrow.
