Parra

Living with his painter/sculptor father, Parra grew up surrounded by colours, oil paint, wood, weird looking pictures & rubenesque paintings. A second influence was skateboarding “In the early nineties the skate scene was about sarcasm, post
rebel feelings & sampling existing design, like a strange post pop art”. A third was  hip hop – “ I was a little petty DJ back then spinning for cabfare” – sparking an early interest in cover art, still informing his aesthetic today. Music is the crux of
Parra’s work, encompassing eclectic musical vibes from Donovan to Slayer. Almost entirely self taught - "A lot of looking & copying & changing & changing it again until it looked like something else & I forgot about the original", Parra is pure
- he believes that 'The Poster' is a design movement. The basic colour palettes (usually 2 or 3), beautiful hand-drawn typography & esoteric character creation are reminiscent of screen printed poster designs of the 1960s & 70s. If it wasn't for the subtle nudges towards hip hop & graffiti culture, you may think he was working in the wrong century. Some of Parra's characters would feel just as at home in the ' Cat in the Hat ' as they do promoting a scratching competition or on the cover of a Biz Markie record.

Parra's Rockwell clothing range launched in 2000 and is stocked in London, Tokyo, Berlin and New York. He recently designed a series of Ben & Jerry's print ads, & has also worked with Footlocker, Nike & skate label Colorblind for whom he created some of their best selling board designs, which are included in the exhibition.Taking a few selected commercial design jobs every year he prefers to make the bulk of his output flyers, posters & identities for friends & admirers, making his work is available to everyone to use, keep or discard as they wish. Beneficiaries have included shops Patta & Kids Love Wax, Rockwell records, Rushhour Distribution & Rednose Distrikt, avant garde rap artists, events, films & club nights. Visit his online gallery.

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