Christopher Parrott: Interior Empire

Presented by WANGSIM | through 2 February 2022

Dec 29, 2021

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Copy of 16.1, Where the Action is, oil on canvas, Christopher Parrott © WANGSIM

Christopher Parrott: Interior Empire

Presented by WANGSIM

"[In 2006] I started to think that a fictional gallery space could be a forum in which to explore themes that were increasingly strong in American life due to Internet culture - exhibitionism, voyeurism, personal fetishes made public, unintended consequences - but in a way that implicated myself as well, putting my own obsessions on display for anyone to see.”— Christopher Parrott

Wangsim is pleased to present Interior Empire, an online exhibition of New York-based artist Christopher Parrott, which surveys the artist’s practice over the last two decades. A selection of 18 pieces of paper and canvas works by Parrott are unveiled in the digital presentation, marking the artist’s first online-exclusive solo project.

Depicting numerous clothed and nude figures against gallery walls (within which hangs a fictional body of work called Simulacrum Studies), Parrott’s nuanced and enigmatic works reflect his interest in illuminating relationships between the past and present of Western cultural and art histories.

Turning to ancient Greek sculptures, French Neoclassical paintings and the artist’s long-term obsession with Rodin’s Gates of Hell, as his resonant metaphors for contemporary conflicts, internal and social tensions, Parrott, inside his “interior empire”, neatly arranges layers of narratives within a strongly conceptual foundation. As part of the artist’s ongoing investigation on how personal dramas play out against the backdrop of larger historical forces, the re-imagined and the real coexist in Parrott’s oil paintings and intimate charcoal drawings. Playfully juxtaposed are physiques borrowed from the artist’s personal life, such as friends’ and his own, observing or reenacting historical masterpieces exploring power, sexuality, and humanity.

For the past 16 years the artist has carried out a rigorous and sustained studio practice that spotlights the de-familiarisation of space and an examination of the human condition.

Click here to view Christopher Parrott’s work on Artsy online viewing room