ERIN PARISH: UTOPIA PARKWAY
April 4 – May 25, 2002
Opening Reception: Thursday April 4, 5–7 pm

Marcel Sitcoske Gallery is proud to present our third solo exhibition of work by New York based abstract painter Erin Parish. This exhibition will also open our new location at 20 Hawthorne Street.

With this show, Parish continues her exploration of medium, texture, color, and surface to create abstract paintings that have a universal resonance. Her new work, still very much inspired by the natural world, transcends simple representation to capture the evocative mood of a misty autumn dawn or a heavy tropical evening. In Foggy Morning Layover, a rough grid of gem-like blue squares is partially obscured by a gently settling blanket of white. Layers of soft purple waves form a haze through which we peer into the depths of Intoxication Lingering. In What Happens in the Rain Parish paints just that, as small yellow-green pools punctuate the deep green canvas, recalling the play of raindrops on the surface of a lake. Parish operates somewhere between reference and total abstraction, as she refrains from a complete embrace of one or the other.

Utopia Parkway, the title of the exhibition, highlights another aspect of Parish's work. It refers to the name of the street in Queens, New York where the artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) spent his entire adult life. Cornell was an early inspiration for Parish and though superficially different, there is an affinity between their works. Known for his Surrealist constructions in which he would juxtapose found objects and images inside boxes, Cornell created artworks for contemplation. Similarly, Parish allows us an opportunity for meditation through her use of atmosphere and texture. Parish’s and Cornell’s works also share a balance between physical and implied space. Although his boxes usually only measured a few inches deep, they revealed entire worlds. Similarly Parish’s multi-layered canvases have a fairly shallow real space, but suggest a sense of the infinite, so much so that we risk loosing ourselves when gazing into their depths. Cornell’s boxes also serve to transport us to foreign lands, places he would only visit through his art. With titles such as The Oslo Connection and Siam Nights, Parish’s paintings likewise carry us away, yet do so through subtle manipulation of light and color as opposed to appropriated image and allusion. With this third exhibition of Erin Parish’s, her work has grown more complex and varied, yet stays grounded in the technique and craftsmanship that she has maintained throughout her career.