A pioneer in performance and video art, Steven Parrino's radical practice was born out of his deep understanding of American countercultures and contemporary art movements of the 20th century and beyond.
Read MoreBorn in New York, Parrino earned an Associate in Applied Science from the State University of New York at Farmingdale in 1979 before completing his BFA at the New School, New York in 1982.
From his exhibition debut at Nature Morte Gallery in 1984 until his untimely death in 2005 aged 46, Parrino's performance-oriented works placed him at the forefront of the New York art scene.
'I want to be profoundly touched by art, by life. I came to painting at the time of its death, not to breathe its last breath, but to caress its lifelessness' — Steven Parrino, The No Texts (1979-2003) (2003).
Parrino's oeuvre was built on the infamous 1980s dictum that 'Painting is Dead'. Influenced by punk-rock existentialism and the 'shaped paintings' dominating abstract painting in the 1960s, Parrino tore, crushed, and twisted canvases, transforming his works into radical sculptural objects.
Almost performative in his approach, Parrino would start by painting monochrome colour onto his canvases before detaching them from the frame and restructuring the work into a renewed three-dimensional 'picture'.
Folded, creased, and pierced, Parrino's artworks seek to break down the illusion of the picture plane and the post-war celebration of flatness. Resisting the Minimalist rhetoric of the painting as object, which operated as a mode of realism, Parrino renegotiated the literal and physical boundaries of an artwork.
His nihilistic approach to art making and inclusion of iconoclastic figures and imagery, such as the Hells Angels insignia and Rebel flags seen in 'Exit/Dark Matter' (1998—1999), can be traced back to his interest in countercultural aesthetics and the rebellions of the American punk music scene.
In 2007, two years after the artist's death, Palais de Tokyo in Paris hosted a major survey of Steven Parrino's work. This was followed by a solo exhibition at Gagosian, marking his debut show since his estate joined the mega-gallery the year before.
Between 2019 and 2020, Parrino was part of three major retrospectives in Europe. Featured heavily in the surveys of Cady Noland (2019) and Olivier Mosset (2019) at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt and at the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva respectively, Parrino was then the subject of a comprehensive show at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in Vaduz in 2020.
Entitled Nihilism is Love, the exhibition featured over 90 works, including paintings, works on paper, films, and sculptures. Spanning the entirety of Parrino's career, the exhibition showcased the more formalist works of his early career, including Crowbar (1987), Two Slots (1987), and Stockade (Existential Trap for Speed Freaks) (1988—1991). The exhibition also presented works exhibiting Parrino's gothic sensibilities, such as Bradley "The Beast" Field R.I.P. (1997).
In 2020, the sale of SCREW BALL (1988), a misshapen neon-yellow painting, marked an auction record for the artist, sailing past its high estimate of $850,000 and selling for $977,000.
Steven Parrino's solo exhibitions include Steven Parrino, Skarstedt, New York (2019); Steven Parrino: Dancing On Graves, The Power Station, Dallas (2017); Steven Parrino: Armleder, Barré, Buren, Hantaï, Mosset, Parmentier, Toroni, Gagosian, Paris (2013); Born to Be Wild: Hommage an Steven Parrino, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2009); Steven Parrino, Gagosian, New York (2007); Steven Parrino, Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2007); and Steven Parrino: A Retrospective, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2005), among others.
Steven Parrino's group exhibitions include Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2018); Spring Installation, Gagosian, Paris (2017); Prototypology: An Index of Process and Mutation, Gagosian, Rome (2015); Endless Bummer II / Still Bummin', Marlborough Chelsea, New York (2013); Black & Blue: Steven Parrino & Yves Klein, MoMA P.S.1, New York (2006); What's New Pussycat, Museum für Modern Kunst, Frankfurt (2005); and Steven Parrino and John McCracken, Massimo DeCarlo Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2004), among others.
Annabel Downs | Ocula | 2021
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