(MIAMI, FL – November 14, 2024) — Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is pleased to announce that José Parlá: Homecoming is now open to the public, featuring a series of never-before-seen works and a site-specific mural. Celebrating the spirit of resilience and returning to one’s roots, Homecoming is a testament to the profound connection between personal history, art, and creative expression.
Three years in the making, Homecoming is an intricate exhibition in two parts that is a complete reimagining of the traditional space of the museum. For the first portion, visitors witnessed Parlá’s dynamic, dance-like technique in real time as he painted a site-specific mural at the museum over a weekend in late October.
The second portion of the exhibition, sees the museum gallery transformed and converted into a replica of Parlá’s studio—complete with paint-splattered tables, an eclectic vinyl record collection of Cuban-inspired music, and decades of Parla’s personal memorabilia, all brought in from his studio in Brooklyn, New York.
Acrylic, oil, enamel, collage and plaster on canvas. 96 x 168 x 3 inches
Courtesy the artist and Parlá Studios
In addition to the completed mural and studio recreation, the exhibition presents a collection of brand-new works marking Parlá’s return to painting after a life-threatening case of COVID-19, for which he was hospitalized and placed under a medically-induced fourth-month coma in 2021, suffering a stroke and significant brain bleeding. Homecoming marks not only a return to Miami, but also a coming home to his studio and practice, and bringing this into the museum.
Born in Miami to Cuban émigré parents, Parlá was raised between mainland United States and Puerto Rico amidst the vibrant Caribbean and Latin American cultural landscapes of the 1970s and 1980s. Gathering inspiration from various cultural carriers (including Cuban, hip-hop, and reggae music), Parlá embarked on an artistic expedition—receiving the Scholastic Art Award, earning a scholarship to study at Savannah College of Art and Design, immersing himself in the community of New World School of the Arts, and ultimately moving to New York City, where his practice found a global stage with multiple international exhibitions.
This exhibition at PAMM blends the myriad and colorful cultures that have inspired and infiltrated his decades-long practice. Deeply rooted in his personal journey and shaped by the rich history of his origins, each painting is created as an homage to the artist’s native Miami. By using a process of layering ink, paint, plaster, and collaged posters that were once posted on the city’s walls, each tableau bears the imprints of the region’s displacement, immigration, adaptation, and the transformation of words into gestures, made using the names of localities, countries, and its peoples. These abstract gestural marks become indelible echoes in the tapestry of historical psychology and geography, serving as a poignant universal narrative.
“José Parlá’s practice and work appeals to a much broader audience than just the committed museumgoer,” said PAMM Associate Curator Maritza M. Lacayo. “Homecoming celebrates an artist whose artistic career began in Miami while also reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic. As a child of immigrants and having moved throughout his entire life, Parlá’s personal story will also echo those of our Miami community.”
Acrylic, oil, enamel, collage, and plaster on canvas. Two panels: 96 x 72 inches, each. 192 x 3 inches, overall
Courtesy the artist and Parlá Studios
Acrylic, oil, enamel spray paint, paper collage, and plaster on canvas. 96 x 168 x 3 inches
Courtesy the artist and Parlá Studios
José Parlá: Homecoming is organized by Maritza M. Lacayo, Associate Curator, with the support of Fabiana A. Sotillo, Curatorial Assistant. This exhibition is presented by Citi with supporting sponsorship from Sarah Arison and Goya Foods.
José Parlá: Homecoming is on view through July 6, 2025.
ABOUT JOSÉ PARLÁ
José Parlá (b.1973) creates paintings and multidisciplinary works based on his interest in hybrid forms of abstraction. He draws inspiration from various mediums including music, calligraphy, dance, and the decay of urban architecture and advertisements. His works poetically challenge ideas about language, politics, identity, and how we define places and spaces. Parlá’s relationship with mark-making is physical and textural, incorporating the body’s gestures into a painterly stream of consciousness composed of areas of addition, erasure, and layering that challenge the status quo of visual culture.
Parlá was born to Cuban parents in Miami, Florida, and lives and works out of Brooklyn, New York. He studied painting at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia; the New World School of the Arts, Miami, Florida; and Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida.
Solo exhibitions of Parlá’s work have been organized at institutions such as The Bronx Museum, New York (2022); Gana Art Center, Seoul (2022); Istanbul’74, Istanbul (2019); Hong Kong Contemporary Art (HOCA) Foundation, Hong Kong (2019); Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (2018); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2017); Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York (2017); Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas (2016); High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2015); amongst others.
Public arts projects include permanent large-scale commissions including Far Rockaway Writer’s Library, a collaboration between Snøhetta and Parlá, New York (2023); Amistad América, University of Texas, Austin (2018); One Union of the Senses, ONE World Trade Center, New York (2015); Nature of Language, in collaboration with Snøhetta, Hunt Library at North Carolina State University, Raleigh (2013); Diary of Brooklyn, Barclays Center, New York (2012); Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York (2012); The Bridge, and The Names that Live and Sometimes Fade While Time Flies, Concord City Place, Toronto (2010).
Select group exhibitions and biennials include The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2023); Brooklyn Abstraction, Four Artists, Four Walls, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2022); Reflections, Gana Art, Seoul (2019); Glasstress, Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Venice (2019); Beyond the Streets, New York (2019); Yasiin bey: Negus, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2019); Victors for Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (2017); Post No Bills: Public Walls as Studio and Source, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (2016); Seeing, Saying, Images and Words, Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, North Carolina (2016); Wrinkles of the City: Havana Cuba: JR & José Parlá, the Havana Biennial, Havana (2012); amongst others.
Parlá’s work is in several public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami; The British Museum, London; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; El Espacio, Miami; POLA Museum of Art, Japan; The Neuberger Museum of Art, New York; and The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana.
Parlá has received numerous awards, including the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2023), the Hirshhorn Museum Artist x Artist honoree (Hank Willis Thomas x José Parlá) (2023), National Young Arts Foundation Award (2022), Americans for the Arts National Art Award (2022), Americans for the Arts Public Art Network (2019), Miami Dade College Alumni Hall of Fame Award inductee (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council honoree (2014), Institute of Contemporary Arts(ICA) London – Grand Prize (2013), Heartland Film Festival – Best Documentary Short and Best U.S. Premiere for Wrinkles of the City, Havana (2013) Scholastic Art Award.
ABOUT PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), led by Director Franklin Sirmans, promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. The 40-year-old South Florida institution, formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM), opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, on December 4, 2013 in Downtown Miami’s Maurice A. Ferré Park.
The facility is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces.
