ERIN PARISH
RECENT PAINTINGS
Dates: March 20 – April 17
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 20, 4 – 7pm

Marcel Sitcoske Gallery is pleased to announce the first West Coast solo exhibition of New York painter Erin Parish. The exhibition opens Saturday, March 20.

At the age of 32, Erin Parish has been in an impressive number of exhibitions for so young of an artist. Described as “a prodigy” for her strong body of work, “among the abstractionists of her generation, she is also a bit of an anachronism: though savvy about current trends, she paints like an old timer”* Parish’s paintings do not scream for attention. Instead, like a chant, they softly and calmly, yet powerfully, convey their message to anyone willing to listen. Their power lies in their depth, their subtlety, and the nuances of their surfaces. The more time one spends with these paintings, the greater their experience of them becomes. Large monochromatic surfaces reveal themselves to be heavily worked and painstakingly built up upon further inspection. The expansive meditative qualities of many of the works are only enriched by an underlying turbulence.

With “Lorelei,” a 60 x 96 inch canvas, the cool blue palette and smooth surface are reminiscent of a vast body of water. Layer upon layer of thinly painted, translucent color draws us into its depth, while horizontal stripes anchor us. This is where she begins to create that dialogue which is anxious yet calm, fearful yet confident. In “At Constant Crossroads” (64 x 64 inches), Parish also maintains a careful balance between a vastness in which to lose oneself and an attention to the physicality of the surface. A muted palette of green, yellow and white gives way to the disquiet of paint raked across the surface, resembling violent eddies. In these quiet yet complex works, Parish has provided us with a meditative space in which the vastness of our own interior space can be explored. The opening reception will be held Saturday, March 20 from 4–7pm. The exhibition will run through April 17.