Celebrate the opening of José Parlá: Homecoming with a conversation between artist José Parlá and architect Craig Dykers. Homecoming is Parlá’s first solo museum exhibition in his hometown and features a new series of never-before-seen works, a site-specific mural, and gallery space that mirrors the artist’s studio.
Parlá and Dykers will discuss how art and architecture intersect and support each other, as displayed by collaborations between Parlá, Dykers, and Snøhetta. Parlá worked with Snøhetta to convert a warehouse in Gowanus, Brooklyn into his working studio in 2014. The design of Parlá’s studio is one in a series of collaborations with Snøhetta, including the integrated artwork for the façade of the Far Rockaway Public Library in Queens, New York. Parlá’s mural, Nature of Language, lives in the Snøhetta-designed James B. Hunt Jr Library at North Carolina State University.
Immediately following the conversation, continue the celebration of José Parlá: Homecoming with a Rumba performance by Clave y Cuba and a live set by Arthur Baker on the terrace.
Admission is free for members and $18 for adults. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The conversation will be live-streamed on YouTube Live and available post-program. Simultaneous interpretation into American Sign Language, Haitian Creole, and Spanish will be available.
About José Parlá
José Parlá (b.1973) creates paintings and multidisciplinary works based on his interest in hybrid forms of abstraction. He draws inspiration from various mediums including music, calligraphy, dance, and the decay of urban architecture and advertisements. His works poetically challenge ideas about language, politics, identity, and how we define places and spaces. Parlá’s relationship with mark-making is physical and textural, incorporating the body’s gestures into a painterly stream of consciousness composed of areas of addition, erasure, and layering that challenge the status quo of visual culture.
Parlá was born to Cuban parents in Miami, Florida, and lives and works out of Brooklyn, New York. He studied painting at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia; the New World School of the Arts, Miami, Florida; and Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida.
Solo exhibitions of Parlá’s work have been organized at institutions such as The Bronx Museum, New York (2022); Gana Art Center, Seoul (2022); Istanbul’74, Istanbul (2019); Hong Kong Contemporary Art (HOCA) Foundation, Hong Kong (2019); Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (2018); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2017); Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York (2017); Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas (2016); High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2015); amongst others.
Public art projects include permanent large-scale commissions including Far Rockaway Writer’s Library, a collaboration between SNØHETTA and Parlá, New York (2023); University of Texas, Austin (2018); ONE World Trade Center, New York (2015); A collaboration with Snøhetta, Hunt Library at North Carolina State University, Raleigh (2013); Barclays Center, New York (2012); Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York (2012); Concord City Place, Toronto (2010).
Select group exhibitions and biennials include The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2023); Brooklyn Abstraction, Four Artists, Four Walls, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2022); Reflections, Gana Art, Seoul (2019); Glasstress, Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Venice (2019); Beyond the Streets, New York (2019); Yasiin bey: Negus, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2019); Victors for Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (2017); Post No Bills: Public Walls as Studio and Source, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (2016); Seeing, Saying, Images and Words, Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, North Carolina (2016); Wrinkles of the City: Havana Cuba: JR & José Parlá, the Havana Biennial, Havana (2012); amongst others.
Parlá’s work is in several public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, New York; The British Museum, London; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; El Espacio 23, Miami; POLA Museum of Art, Japan; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida; The Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, NY; The Neuberger Museum of Art, New York; and The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana. Parlá serves on the board of the National YoungArts Foundation.
Parlá has received numerous awards, including the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Alumni Achievement Award (2024) Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2023), the Hirshhorn Museum Artist x Artist honoree (Hank Willis Thomas x José Parlá) (2023), National Young Arts Foundation Award (2022), Americans for the Arts National Art Award (2022), Americans for the Arts Public Art Network (2019), Miami Dade College Alumni Hall of Fame Award inductee (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council honoree (2014), Institute of Contemporary Arts(ICA) London – Grand Prize (2013), Heartland Film Festival – Best Documentary Short and Best U.S. Premiere for Wrinkles of the City, Havana (2013) Scholastic Art Award.
Parlá has been featured in publications and media globally such as The New York Times, CBS News Sunday Morning, Artforum, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, The Brooklyn Rail, Art in America, Dazed, BOMB Magazine, Whitewall, Juxtapoz, CULTURED, EL PAÍS, Vogue, Financial Times, and many more.
About Craig Dykers
Craig Dykers co-founded Snøhetta in 1989, an integrated architecture, landscape architecture, and design company focused on well-being, biodiversity, sustainability, and empowering the communities where they work. Snøhetta is based in New York City, USA, and Oslo, Norway, and has five additional global offices.
Dykers has led many prominent projects including the Alexandria Library in Egypt, the Oslo Opera in Norway, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the new Joslyn Museum of Art, and several new libraries including the Calgary Central Library. Recent projects underway include the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, the Ford Motor Company Design Campus, and the Museum of Natural Science in Guadalajara, Mexico, among many other projects nationally and internationally.
Snøhetta has received numerous recognitions, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (for the Alexandria Library), the Mies van der Rohe Award (for the Oslo Opera), and the Cooper Hewitt’s 2020 National Design Award for Architecture. The practice has been recognized among the top 10 most innovative companies in the world by the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company magazine. Throughout this, there remains a deep-seated interest in building an intimate relationship with people and places as a source of inspiration.
Dykers has lectured and taught extensively in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He has collaborated with numerous artists. He remains focused on the positive consequences of design from a range of perspectives. After living in Oslo for 16 years, he has lived in Brooklyn, New York since 2005.
