José Parlá

Writers’ Bench 149th Street and Grand Concourse, 2020, Hand Finished

2020

The American artist was born in 1973 and his place of birth is in Miami. He was the son of Cuban immigrant parents. He was interested in paintings and creative works from his early days. He started painting arts at the age of 10 and garnered experience of paintings on walls of the city. He used to sign using name “Ease” on his work. At the age of 16, he earned the scholarship from the Savannah College of Art & Design. According to reports, it was his high school teacher who discovered his talents and contributed in providing the scholarship to him. Later, Parlá was enrolled at Miami Dade Community College. He also went to New World School of the Arts. After the death of his father, Parlá moved to the Bronx and was focused on establishing himself as a renowned artist in New York. He is an American critically acclaimed artist in large-scale murals, paintings, photography and also works for videos and sculpture. His first large-scale mural was in 2009 for City Place which is a Toronto housing development. He painted Diary of Brooklyn which is a 70-foot long lobby mural created in 2012 for the Barclays Center. In the following year, he worked for the North Carolina State University in its James B. Hunt Jr. Library where Parlá painted the mural The Nature of Language in 2013. He also painted the ONE: Union of the Senses in 2014 which is displayed the One World Trade Center’s lobby which is said to be the largest painting in New York City measuring 15 by 90 feet. The beautiful arts and creation of Parlá has already been exhibited in several parts of the world including Atlanta, Georgia (High Museum of Art), Purchase, New York (The Neuberger Museum of Art), London, United Kingdom (The British Museum), Havana, Cuba (The National Museum of Fine Arts) and much more.