PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
Eric Parnes stood in the rain beside the austere white building on Embassy Row, its parking lot empty, its rooms silent and shuttered for more than three decades, and he pointed at where bacchanals once raged late into the night. Here was the grand entryway where limousines dropped off diplomats, socialites and movie stars. There was the courtyard with its delicate blue-flowered tile work, and, just beyond it, the Persian Room, an imposing space whose high-domed ceiling glittered with hundreds of tiny mirrors.
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Eric Parnes (b. 1979) is an American Iranian contemporary artist based in New York City, USA. His work consists of mixed media sculptures, paintings, photography, and installation art, appropriating well-known logos and corporate branding in an examination of Middle Eastern culture within the constantly evolving landscape of globalization. Parnes graduated with an undergraduate degree and an MA from New York University.
The multimedia work of Eric Parnes incorporates both his cultural and ethnic heritage as an American of Iranian descent, and is noted for successfully exploring the ongoing history of Oriental imagery in both the West and the East, in their past and present reincarnations. Parnes has referred to his own style of art as that of a "neo Orientalist". Having mastered a wide variety of mediums, his works highly differentiate and are informed by ancient and modern history, as well as mysticism, war, and fashion. By intentionally appropriating and re-contextualizing familiar symbols of industry giants varying from Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Ferrari, to Puma, Citibank, Subway, and Burger King, Parnes reintroduces the realities of corporate influence and its developing relationship with traditional cultures.
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
