The playful and humorous Dutch artist Parra plunges into a feminine universe for his new solo show at Ruttkowski; 68 gallery in Cologne, Germany. His exhibit “I can’t look at your face anymore” features a new collection of multimedia work, which includes paintings, sculpture and textiles. Parra is well-known for his provocative pieces, featured here, paintings with vivid colors and minimalist style filled with surreal creatures, many of them women.
Parra has often depicted women with cartoony features like beady eyes and pointy beaks, but here they are drawn with no features at all and could be any woman. Showing their naked body but not their faces, the series is a study and a parody of the modern woman and her experiences in love. For instance, in his paintings “Love Lost” and “Love Gained”, Parra toys with the suffering and enjoyment that love brings, and his main character’s reactions to it. We find her both lamenting in bed or reclined, lounging comfortably in lust.
In other works like “The escape”, three women are holding and comforting each other, while in “Nutella Breakfast” the scene is clearly one of satisfaction, and the effect that the savory Nutella breakfast has on this woman is like a drug effect: her body takes on a new psychedelic form, and she is multiplied into three versions of herself that dance. Parra’s “I can’t look at your face anymore” will be on view until May 29th, 2016 at Ruttkowski;68 gallery.
