Erik Parker

Mary Boone Gallery presents New Soul, an exhibition of new paintings by Erik Parker.

A highlight of the exhibition is a series of tondo paintings of various sizes depicting pools of water within luxuriant landscapes. Parker's characteristic array of intense colors infuses these scenes, which range from sunlit tropical lagoons to shaded

cenote reservoirs. Lush vegetation frames and nearly overtakes the view, as if these alluring places, with their offer of escape fantasy, are being unveiled through the telescope of a distant explorer.

Similar paradisiacal landscapes appear in Parker's figural paintings (now in both tondo and rectangular format) as just one of many disparate elements. Like a modern-day Arcimboldo, Parker conglomerates painting styles and techniques, as well as collage, to create a head and face. These figures, often with a gesture of confusion or anguish, present a contemporary portrait - one besieged by information and images.