José Parra: reinventing the baroque

With bold, deeply personal work, Parra proposes a return to the 17th century in order to revolutionize figurative art through the pictorial vision of the baroque.

José Parra (Guadalajara, Jalisco, 1975) belongs to the third generation of artists in his family, a family devoted to creating and reproducing baroque pieces and sacred art. His work takes in that baroque influence and pushes it to the limit in a constant search to reinvent the figurative. He pulls it off through a language of his own, drawn from his imagination, with which he steeps the baroque in a completely contemporary approach.

His canvases tell stories, describe situations and portray people of our own time. Parra's proposal consists of taking his characters out of context, placing them in fantastical settings and dressing them in baroque clothes, far removed from the reality of their nature. All while waiting for the viewer to decipher, by connecting with the logic of what they see, the message that has been left hidden.

In his creations Parra reveals a great concern for detail. The incidental becomes a fundamental part of his artwork and he presents it with meticulous realism. Along the same lines, he opts for bright colours to underline that intention. And it is precisely the force of the detail that shakes up the fantastical setting in which the story takes place, and makes the case for the plausibility of fantasy.

The suggestive forms of his style reach the level of mastery in the finish of the fabrics and in the treatment of the human body, lavish with eroticism and delicacy. An unreal, dramatic light falls over his paintings, creating a melancholy, intimate atmosphere. Qualities he also extends to his panoramic compositions.

José Parra's painting finds its real meaning when the viewer dives into the stories the canvases tell and takes on the role of their characters. The Mexican painter leaves the artwork open to the imagination of whoever is looking at it, so that the viewer is the one who gives it an ending.

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