Erik Parker at Leo Koenig - New York

As both painter and cultural archivist, Erik Parker incorporates written allusions to specific people, places and events in large compositions that feature masses of swirling intestinal shapes and colorful, intricately painted doodles. Often symmetrically structured, the paintings can suggest Rorschach ink blots; the densely packed words, drawn in marker, are intimately related to the theme of a given work. For instance, in Sweet Back Man (2002), an homage to the blues legend Leadbelly, names, dates, places and facts gleaned from the singer's biography are inscribed within the colorful border. Despite their factual basis, Parker's histories are free-form, much like jazz improvisation.

The combinations of painterly mediums also seem improvisational--marker, enamel and acrylic coexist harmoniously, and the scribbles and doodles carry over onto the unprimed edges of the canvas. Hidden behind the sometimes obscure verbal and visual relationships and references is a fitting and humorous addition--glow-in-the-dark paint. The luminous paint is not visible under the gallery lighting, but provides a dividend for the eventual collector.

The themes explored in this show ranged from famous places and people in Texas (on a support shaped like the state) to the book Fast Food Nation, and the life and work of H.C. Westermann. Can't Explain (2002) takes on a more frightening theme: names of terrorists, suicide bombers and pedophilic priests make up the bulk of the text. Parker encloses them in a painterly mass of pink, green and blue wormlike finger shapes. Perched atop the blue-and-pink-painted title is an ironically cheery little rainbow.

In You Paint the Picture, an anthropomorphized cartoonlike drawing of a tall building rises up from a loosely silhouetted city. Oozing from an upper floor of the building is a yellow shape filled with text. A cerulean sky illuminates the background and the title arcs across the top of the composition, providing a starting point for interpreting the mass of text below. Upon closer inspection, one discovers within the painting the names, dates, places and events associated with Ana Mendieta's fatal fall from a New York high-rise in 1985.

With his unique blend of associative words and sophisticated painting, Parker blurs the line between the well known and the obscure, creating a novel recontextualization of 20th-century culture.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group