the edge of flesh and blood

Montclair State University Galleries, September 14 – December 16, 2023

Joseph Parra’s erotic and hypnotic paintings explore the larger consequences of searching for validation, inspiration, and intimacy through digitally mediated experiences.

Left: Muscled and Tanned, 2023. Right: Blue Light, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and ASHES/ASHES

Using acrylic paint and a custom wooden rig, Parra squeezes hundreds of globs of paint by hand in a quasi-grid-like fashion on a single canvas. Together, the individual drops of paint create a larger image, similar to how individual pixels function as the building blocks of screen-based images.

Untitled (Clone), 2022. Courtesy of the artist and ASHES/ASHES

Parra relies on the physical presence and dimensionality of the paint to bring awareness to the fleeting nature of digital images that project ideals of sex, power, and fantasy. He isolates torsos, arms, and chests with a particular focus on the male body to draw attention to notions of masculinity and how these images circulate online.

Left: Submissive in the Simulation (Meadow), 2023. Right: Starlight (Blue-Green), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and ASHES/ASHES

The hollow nature of the images he references is also explored through ideas of anonymity. For example, there are no distinct, identifiable features such as a face present in the paintings – these bodies belong to everyone and no one. Similarly, Parra depicts these hyper-aestheticized bodies in nondescript environments that appear more like loading screens or low-fi renderings than actual places further suggesting an idea of an impossible setting or unattainable reality.