RICHARD PARKER: Double Take:  Magnifying Beauty In The Ordinary

Richard Parker’s paintings are exquisitely rendered portraits of ephemeral objects more often used to create artworks than as the content.  With a nod to Pop Art, Parker focuses on the most elementary of subjects: the very materials artists use to create their work - pencils, eraser, and pastel sticks.

Parker balances the pristine with a touch of whimsy in his canvases - oversized and almost flawless in their depiction, Parker nonetheless includes the marks of hand sharpening on the pencils and of use in the pastels.  Only the erasers are shown in their unused sublime perfection - speaking to that moment before the work begins and when all things feel possible. Defiantly simple and elegant, the paintings are formal in their geometry yet masterfully playful in their content and scale.