Parker on Park - Ray Parker: Color into Line Exhibition
The exhibition features seven vibrant, boldly colored paintings displayed on the black granite walls of the I. M. Pei designed office tower at 499 Park Ave. @59th St. NY City. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 24, from 5:30 to 7:30
Online, April 20, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Since 2005, 499 Park Avenue has underwritten over twenty important contemporary art exhibitions in its Lobby Gallery for the enjoyment of their tenants and the general public. The current show, Ray Parker: Color Into Line, features seven vibrant, boldly colored paintings displayed on the black granite walls of the I. M. Pei designed office tower. The paintings, on loan from the Washburn Gallery in Manhattan, are on view through July 31, 2014 in the The Lobby Gallery located at the southeast corner of 59th Street and Park Avenue, and open to the public weekdays from 8 AM to 6 PM. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M.
Parker's paintings have been described by the New York Times as having "a cutout, late-Matisse look, but their electric orchestration in sharp shocks of color is Parker's own". The essay in the exhibition brochure offers the following observations about the work:
"In Ray Parker's paintings, here as always, color creates shape and space. But in each of the seven paintings included in this exhibition, Parker tried something almost entirely new in his oeuvre: he allowed line to take on a central role." . . . "In fact, looking at them closely, at how they function within these paintings, reveals Parker's achievement of new harmonies between form, line, and color in both process and outcome." Essay by: William C. Agee, Evelyn Kranes Kossak Professor of Art History, Hunter College; Bridget A. McCarthy, M.A. Candidate, Hunter College
Since 2009, the art program has focused on exhibiting painters of the mid to late twentieth century whose work derives all, or in part, from the Abstract Expressionist movement. "The grand scale of the lobby provides a dynamic environment in a public venue for viewing very large works by these notable artists that might otherwise not be seen." says Dorothy Solomon, exhibition curator and President of DSA Fine Arts Ltd., an art consulting firm based in Germantown, NY.
Through its exhibition program, 499 Park Avenue, actively contributes to the cultural community as an expression of its ongoing commitment to excellence in the visual arts and architecture.