On June 28 graphic artist, designer and musician, Piet Parra (featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 24) will be opening a solo show at HVW8 in LA. Titled “Same Old Song,” the exhibit shows new snapshots from his red, blue and pink world filled with curvaceous, naked women engaging in debauchery.
The Amsterdam-based artist is known for his flat, minimalist style, clean lines and the use of highly saturated colors. His intentional limitation with colors and graphic elements allows him to produce witty, poignant images with easy-to-read stories within them. The imagery he uses consists of signature silhouette characters and simple patterns such as lines or raster dots as a nod to or parody of the familiar Pop Art element. The works that he describes as fast and freestyle are the visualizations of a dirty punchline expressed through an almost universal, straightforward visual language.
For his fifth show with the gallery, Parra painted around 20 new works, including large canvases, and smaller works on paper. Showing overturned wine glasses, leisure-suited perverts and behind- the-bar booty slaps, the pieces continue his ongoing interest in the profane — going from harmlessly witty to, at times, uncomfortably politically incorrect. Focused on partying and vices, the paintings in this show poke fun at the extravagance of the Hollywood lifestyle.
Parra’s “Same Old Song” will be on view at HVW8 June 28 through August 10.
Fred Tomaselli's psychedelic painting/collage hybrids have mind-altering tendencies in more ways than one. Over his career, the artist has earned a reputation for blending psychotropic substances with cut-out photos of animals and human parts to create his surreal works of art. Newer pieces shift the focus to more conventional photo collage and acrylic, yet are no less mesmerizing. Colorful and imaginative, Tomaselli's works are like portals to an alternate universe, where his "inquiry into utopia/dystopia - framed by artifice but motivated by the desire for the real - has turned out to be the primary subject".
Born in Bologna, Nunzio Paci developed his artistic finesse viewing the Baroque style of painting promoted in Paci's home city in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of Progressives) was established in 1582 and elevated the arts to the same level of intellectual rigor as astronomy and medicine, in addition to poetry and music. In the 21st century, Paci continues the tradition of his ancestors, innovating compositions that are a triangulation of anatomical study, lyrical song, and psychological probe.
Street art has been criticized for being a boy's club, so for the few internationally-prominent female street artists out there, it has been vital to foster a sense of camaraderie across national borders. This May, 
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