Santiago Parra

26/09/2025

Untitled
Acrylic on canvas
160 x 100 cm
2025

Painting (for me) is an exercise of intense concentration on the act of painting. The encounter of the physicality of the canvas, the appropriation of the brush as an extension of the human body. Intense focus on the present negating distractions. At this moment a creative pulsion takes over and one can only look while an alien force takes over and creates an expressive proposition. There are only questions and no certainties after the process but an image remains, an intense recording of a voice that has been uncovered.

24/09/2025

I’m so proud and happy to be showing among such incredible artists and friends in Istanbul today. thank you for putting out such a good booth, I’ll be enjoying it from a distance !

.olaso

03/08/2025

Today I picked some roses from my studio garden

16/05/2025

13/05/2025

Forest
Mixed media on canvas
170 x 170 cm
2025

“I’ll answer you the same way Louis Armstrong does when they ask him what it means when he blows his trumpet. Louis says, ‘Brother, if you don’t get it, there is no way I can tell you’” (F. Kline, quoted in H.F. Gaugh, Franz Kline, exh. cat., New York, 1985, p. 13)

30/04/2025

First time using white in one of my canvases, what an experience, used to black that engulfs everything white is the contrary. So astonishingly full of light, felt like working in a foundry where sparks of molten metal would rain all over. Kind of looks like a forest, could be its name. 170 x 170 cm

25/04/2025

27/03/2025

Recently opened in London at the , this group show showcases different uses of matter through the work of several established and up and coming artists. It proposes a view of matter beyond the mere physicality proposing a wider understanding of it. Below is the exhibition text.

JD Malat Gallery is pleased to present Matters of Materiality, a group exhibition that examines materiality as both substance and concept in contemporary abstraction. Texture has long been a means through which artists challenge perception, evoke memory and construct depth. In this exhibition, the surface is not a passive foundation but an active force; shaped, disrupted and redefined through process.

Throughout the history of abstraction, artists have pushed beyond the visual, treating material as a language in itself. From the weight of impasto to the raw tactility of industrial substances, texture has been a site of tension: accumulating, resisting and shifting over time. The works in Matters of Materiality extend this dialogue, revealing a sustained fascination with the physical and conceptual possibilities of surface.

Across varied approaches, the artists in this exhibition manipulate material to disrupt, conceal and reveal. Raw, hand-worked textures interrupt smooth, reflective planes; layered compositions stand in contrast to sharply defined grids.

Matters of Materiality invites us to consider material beyond its physicality. Rather than serving as a passive surface, material is worked, manipulated and transformed, holding traces of process, gesture and intent. The exhibition considers how texture shapes experience, how material defines space, and how a work’s weight and presence shift perception.

06/02/2025

I’m so proud to be showing alongside and . Ed Moses was a central figure of post war west coast art. I admire his inventiveness, his playfulness, how he experimented with all sorts of processes resulting in all kinds of imagery but somehow always producing paintings so distinctive, I love his use of colors, of gestures, such an immense painter, I’m so glad to see his son following his footsteps with also intricate and rich compositions. Anyway , I what a glorious celebration of abstraction brought to this year. Those lucky enough to be there can rejoice !

06/12/2024

On the beautiful coast of California, Southern California to be precise, on the town of Solana Beach, two hours south of Los Angeles and 20 min from downtown San Diego. High cliffs over the Pacific Ocean, people surfing, beautiful sunshine and the sun always going down on the ocean.
Biotech, high tech, beautiful houses facing the ocean, a top notch modern art museum in La Jolla, amazing friends. A fantastic experience exhibiting in the show , comprised of 13 paintings explores instinct, pulsion and unconscious, on view till January 25.

23/11/2024

The idea behind my work is to render visible other sources of creativity. Our knowledge of how our brains work is very limited , my intention is to tap into different creative processes to explore other sources of creativity. We tend to reduce brain activity to rationality but in fact our brains work in several different ways we are not aware of. The forms resulting from this exploration reveal an unexplored manifestation of a different brain process and constitute a window into an unexplored part of the brain.

This painting on view in is a an example of this exploration.