Franklin Parrasch Gallery x parrasch heijnen

Presentation Details
A dual presentation by Franklin Parrasch Gallery and parrasch heijnen will pair works by the late post-Minimal sculptor Keith Sonnier and emerging painter Tala Worrell. Sonnier came to prominence in the late 1960s as part of a generation of American and European artists who reinvented sculpture with unorthodox industrial and ephemeral materials. Neon tubing became his signature, enabling him to draw in space with light and color, as in the decades-long Ba-O-Ba series of abstract constructions and numerous large-scale public art installations. Worrell’s investigative process of abstract painting is steeped in her experience as a Lebanese-American raised in Abu Dhabi, attuned to switching between languages, value systems, and cultural traditions. Her visual lexicon of openness and spontaneity, often responding to quotidian physical encounters, is defined by the use of diverse and seemingly incompatible materials.

About the Gallery
Franklin Parrasch Gallery began in 1986 with a program guided by a conscious reflection upon the process of creativity as it relates to human evolution. Over the past three decades, the gallery has established a profile of exhibiting Los Angeles artists whose careers emerged in the 1960s and whose aesthetic alignment with Minimalism developed independently from that of their East Coast contemporaries. Through numerous group exhibitions, the gallery has explored artistic philosophies specific to West Coast subcultures, including hot-rodding and surfing, and how these sensibilities informed the works of Los Angeles artists of this time period. The gallery consistently organizes shows that consider diverse evolutionary theories, with a focused sensitivity to the migration of ideas and aesthetic development as expressed by a wide range of artists who employ innovative practices.

Franklin Parrasch and Christopher Heijnen opened parrasch heijnen in January 2016. The gallery's inaugural exhibition, Ken Price Sculpture: A Career Survey, 1961-2008, defined the vision for our aesthetic and approach. The lens through which parrasch heijnen contextualizes the work of the artists we partner with is based on historical precedents as well as the intergenerational exchange of energy and ideas. The gallery explores contemporary undercurrents while pairing like-spirited material from a variety of periods in contexts designed to bend preconceptions. Using a wide-range of media, the artists we champion engage in conceptual dialogue surrounding cultural and sociopolitical issues to depict the human experience.