Rodolpho Parigi (b. 1977, São Paulo, Brazil) is part of a new generation of Brazilian artists who emerged in the early 2000s. This Friday, May 2, he opens his first solo exhibition in New York at the Nara Roesler Gallery. Approximately 35 works of art will be on display, including a reinterpretation of the famous painting “O Abaporu” by Tarsila do Amaral.
The work of Parigi occupies a liminal space between abstraction and figuration, intertwining a series of references ranging from the tradition of Art History, with particular emphasis on the baroque corporeality of Rubens, to graphic design, advertising, scientific illustrations, pop culture, anatomical plans, and music. Along with dance, music is notably responsible for orchestrating the gestural dynamism that characterizes Parigi’s figures, which emanates from a formal and structural vigor rather than the nature of the brushstroke on the surface of the canvas.
Parigi remarkably summarizes his process with the statement: “there is something alchemical here.” Indeed, the artist operates with a singular transfiguration anchored in a sense of excess, through which he consolidates fragments of extremely diverse images and forms, using saturated and luminous color palettes that construct a retro-futuristic aesthetic. The meticulously controlled execution process and compositional organization equate to an ornamental strategy that resists traditional perspective plays and prohibits the gaze from resting, leading it to incessantly traverse the canvas. In Parigi’s paintings, the high-tech present in the thematic of the works meets the centuries-old virtuosity of oil painting; while the organic merges with the artificial, creating an overall provocative sense of strangeness.
Rodolpho Parigi lives and works in São Paulo.
The exhibition will be on display until June 3, 2024.
For more information, visit: https://nararoesler.art/en/artists/rodolpho-parigi/