Gary Parkins                   Resume

 

EDUCATION

1991    BFA, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT

1989    Wolverhampton University, Wolverhampton, England

 

ASSISTANCESHIPS

2009                Susan Stockwell, London, England, Houston, TX

2001                Judy DeSanders, Dallas, TX

1997                Sherry Owens, Dallas, TX

1988-90         Edward Kienholz and Nancy Redin, Hope, ID, Berlin, Germany

1987-91         Clarice Dreyer, Bozeman, MT, Seattle, WA

 

GRANTED NEW FORMS REGIONAL ARTS INITIATIVE AWARD 1995

 

EXHIBITIONS, INSTALLATIONS, & PERFORMANCES

2011   Wheel of Fortune: The Art of Spinning Out of Control,

           The NewBLK Gallery, Omaha, NE

           Peaking The Edge, Plus Gallery, Denver, CO

           (MA)chi(N)e(MADE), Vertigo, Denver, CO

            Machine Memoir, Obsidian Gallery, Houston, TX

2010   Houston to UK, Frank, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

            Machine Memoir, Obsidian Gallery, Houston, TX

2009   Cooler Than Usual, N Gallery, Houston, TX

            Current Drawings, The Houston Foundry, Houston, TX

            CDC Art on the Avenue, Winter Street Studios, Houston, TX

            Demonstration and Discussion, Rice University, Houston, TX

2008   8 X 10, DiverseWorks, Houston, TX

2006   Housing Crisis Center, HCC, Dallas, TX

            Gary Parkins, Richland College, Dallas, TX

2005   Salon Du Fit, Bath House Cultural Center, Dallas, TX

            Continuation Exhibits, Gray Matters Gallery, Dallas, TX

2004   Sculpture From Another World, MORO Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

            Great Things in Small Packages, Gray Matters Gallery, Dallas, TX

            Intuitive Technological Explorations, Southside on Lamar,

            Dallas, TX

            Intuitive Technological Explorations II, The MAC, Dallas, TX

            English Art Terms, SOCA Gallery, Tainan, Taiwan

2003   Memory Machines, Karen Mitchell Frank Gallery, Dallas, TX

            Continuous Exhibits, Design Within Reach, Dallas, TX

2002   Showcase, Robert Bellamy Design, Dallas, TX

            Small, NRH Gallery, North Richland Hills, TX

            Egopark, Egopark, San Francisco, CA

            Pop Soup, Egopark, San Francisco, CA

            Graphite/Graphite, NRH Gallery, North Richland Hills, TX

            Recent Work, Karen Mitchell Frank Gallery, Dallas, TX

2001   Painting on Glass: For Brushstroke Maniacs, production

            management for Judy DeSanders,  The McKinney

            Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX

1999   BMoCA Invitational, Boulder Museum of

            Contemporary Art, CO

            Spring/Summer Exhibit, The Long Beach Museum of

            Contemporary Art, CA

1998   Fertile Waste, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO

            Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation,

            Dallas, TX

1997   Breathe In, Breathe Out, with Sherry Owens, Conduit Gallery,

            Dallas, TX

            Me Myself and I, Timothy Higbee Gallery, San Francisco, CA

            Confinement 2, 500X Gallery, Dallas, TX

1996   Post-Postcard, Four Walls Gallery, San Francisco, CA

            Three Possible Science-Based Conclusions, performance, Rocky

            Mountain College, Billings, MT

            Mexican Cowboys and Indian Low-Riders, collaborative

            performance, Holter Museum, Helena, MT

1995   Images of Confinement, Artspace, Billings, MT

            How I Value My Education, Elysian School, Billings, MT

            The Naked Poet, video, TV Channel 7, Billings, MT

            Verbal Ulcer, performance, Artspace, Billings, MT

1994   Classic Dilemmas, Fort Collins Creative Arts, Fort Collins, CO

1993   Living in the Video Capture System, D.H. Lawrence Ranch,

            Taos, NM

            Living in the Video Capture System, Elysian School, Billings, MT

            Worlds Apart, video, East Ashland Art Center, Phoenix, AR

            Worlds Apart, video, Montana Alternative Music and Arts Festival,

            Bozeman, MT

REVIEWS

David Hardaker, 2009

 

Gary is a sculptor. The title sculptor does not do justice to what Gary creates nor even begin to suggest the finished work of art that his constructs create.

Gary Parkins makes machines that make art.

After the painstaking design and assembly of a machine that may be as small as a book or fill a room, he allows the machine to perform a repeated cycle that causes medium to flow in a random manner within governed parameters.

If the medium is pen, the result is a magical hatching of tens of thousands of tiny lines. Taking many hours to form, these 'drawings' coalesce into being in a viral way....but that's only the beginning.

From electronics and audio, through the creation of magnetic sculptures that cling and form to each other and utilizing a skill set that includes deep knowledge of engineering, Gary Parkins has forged a singular path in the art world.

He has acted as a technical assistant to such art world luminaries as Ed and Nancy Kienholz, Susan Stockwell, and Sherry Owens. His folio includes sculptures in all materials as well as conceptual pieces and simple drawings.

 

Tom Sale, September 2004

Gary Parkins is probably Leonardo DaVinci incarnate. Among other things, his interests incorporate science, technology and hi-tech manufacturing. Like DaVinci, Parkins’ work is joyfully unpredictable. One day he is rearranging the molecular arrangement of magnet particles with mega-volts of electricity, the next he is off plying his trade to the new industrial princes of the Orient. Okay...Leonardo with a little mad scientist and pull-himself-up-by-the-bootstraps entrepreneur thrown in!

For the Parkins followers, we’re never sure what to expect at each new turn of his career. He can be both a conceptual artist exploring interesting scientific phenomena as well as an intense formalist playing with perfect shapes and seductive materials. No matter the label, there is always is a spark of genius sizzling inside each piece, and what keeps us coming back is that those sparks are never the same--sometimes we’re electrified by the visual complexity, sometimes by the cosmic simplicity--often because, whatever the surface subject matter or narrative thread, we seem to be looking directly into the mind of a fascinating character.

Inside that mind we see a story of the universal laws unfolding-- we can imagine stories of the beginnings of matter, the music of the spheres, molecules’ interaction with each other like characters in a theatrical production: Sister Electricty slaps Brother Gravity and, voila, another Parkins’ piece is born!

If you take only a casual look at Parkins’ work, you might be attracted to his abstract shapes and beautiful craftsmanship. On a more contemplative level, you might dig down to some of the mysteries of life that have been eluding you. Part alchemy, part
indescribable natural phenomena, Gary Parkins’ art is a force to be reckoned with.

 

Sunday, October 17, 2004
Magnets Attract Unique Work
By Wesley Pulkka
For the Journal


    REVIEW: Most of us played with magnets when we were kids. Sculptor Gary Parkins has incorporated magnets and magnetism in his "Sculpture From Another World" solo show at the MoRo Gallery.
    Parkins also offers several "Memory Viewer" machines that look like flying saucers set on edge and two carved wood pieces that are a bit like birds if you can imagine a bird that plugs into an electrical socket.
    The most intriguing works are the magnetic sculptures that vary in concept from sections of vertebrae to a dramatically romantic watch tower. In between are interactive pieces that look like those experiments with iron filings that we did in elementary school.
    The iron filings would form these fuzzy-looking strands that described the extent and shape of the magnetic field. In Parkins' pieces the fields are plasticized and combined with other forms. The viewer is invited to pull the sculpture apart and try an alternate configuration.

    Parkins is an inventor from Dallas who now lives in China and happens to make sculpture.
    During the 1940s and 1950s the "Smoky Stover" cartoon strip ran in newspapers across the country. It was an inventive strip that featured mysteriously balanced two-wheeled cars, human-hand-shaped chairs and a fireman who smoked cigars. If the strip were still running I'd expect to see depictions of Parkins' sculpture titled "Fidelity," a wood form with spindly aluminum legs and an electrical plug head. It spends its time plugged into the wall socket.
    The magnet works are highly original and fun to play with. There are historic connections from interactive art by Marcel Duchamp and several artists in the MADI movement.
    Parkins' show is well worth a visit. If you think that eccentricity is a virtue you'll like this show.
   

Dallas Observer Apr 22, 2004

 

...Parkins sculpture is similarly small but more elemental, or, shall I say, mineral. Working with magnet as a raw material for sculpting, Parkins makes small, craggy forms, most of which are intended to be manipulated by human hands. Attracted by electromagnetic pulsion, the pieces come in small, irregularly shaped components that can be put together and taken apart. The pieces come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the fingery and coral reef-like to the bulbous and sugar sack-shaped. An exception to this is Parkins small tray of whirling, glittery disco dust, Thought Barrier, which, with its mesmerizing spin of sparkly sand, lures one into the gallery space. The preciosity of this work packs a powerful punch. Through May 9 in the New Works Space at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 3120 McKinney Ave., 214-953-1MAC.

 

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