José Parlá Examines Our “Polarities”

Experience and time add texture. As we get older, we add layers of meaning onto what we see, giving us, hopefully, richer understanding of the world around us and our place in it. For José Parlá, he paints this feeling, this exuberance of age and time. When he was in the hospital last year with COVID and the doctors told him he may never paint again, that sort of experience became what we see in Polarities, his new solo show at Library Street Colletive in Detroit. This show is about the density of language and time passing, with each work its own ecosystem of how the artist has allowed himself to live in and nourish over his career.