Born in Miami in 1973, Parlá then moved to Puerto Rico.
After being raised in the Caribbean island by his Cuban parents, Parlá returned to Miami at the age of nine where he began painting and remained there until being awarded a scholarship to Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia.
In 1997 Parlá arrived in New York, the home base and bridge to his new travels, which have included extended stays throughout Europe, Asia and South America.
His relationship with the cities in which he has lived and those through which he has travelled has enormously influenced his work. In his paintings he explores the wanderings of urban populations and translates these personal experiences and makes visible manifestations of what lies beneath our surfaces.
By drawing inspiration from the urban landscape, the energy and memory which feeds him, José Parlá creates a visual narrative of his experiences in different cities. Through the multilayered, psycho-geographical, calligraphic nature of his work he embeds these stories in his paintings and invites the viewer to discover his vision of the environment. Parlá is therefore not just a painter, but a new kind of novelist; a modern storyteller who uses wall gestures, the writing on the wall, and found advertisings to reconstruct complex stories and anatomies.
José Parlá began painting under the name Ease in 1983 on city walls, and while painting in the tradition of New York subway art, he also was experimenting on canvas with the desire to translate the decaying environment of derelict places, which later inspired his cityscapes aesthetic and continues to inform his work today.
In July 2007 Jose Parla and FUTURA featured together in the two man landmark exhibition 'PIRATE UTOPIAS' at Elms Lesters.
In October/ November 2008 Jose Parla's first UK solo show ADAPTATION/ TRANSLATION was held at Elms Lesters.
Art historian Ben Jones' fascinating and in depth interview with Jose Parla is published in The Elms Lesters Book
Elms Lesters is a primary source of works by Jose Parla
Books
Exhibitions
In or Out?
Pirate Utopias
Small, Medium and Large
ADAPTATION / TRANSLATION
Christmas Show and Book Launch
Natural Selection
