Western Exhibitions presents Biological Exuberance, an exhibition of new works on paper and sculptural installations by Chicago-based artist, John Parot. The artist borrowed the title of his exhibition from Bruce Bagemihl�s book of the same name, an investigation of homosexual behavior among animals. Parot, however, focuses on examples of the feral in gay urban life: impulsivity, debauchery, promiscuity, and the dynamic between predator and prey in sexual encounters.
In his recent collages, Parot embellishes handsome male faces clipped from fashion and porn magazines with intricate patterns of gouache that carry both tribal and retro-futuristic connotations. Only eyes, mouths, and occasional hairdos remain, peering out from behind the mask-like facades of Parot�s gouache work. The tribe of masked heads hunts through abstract landscapes painted in a garish palette of blood red, hot pink, and matte black. Although abstracted, the landscapes allude to caves, spider webs, and other symbols of danger and capture.
A group of sculptural installations assembled from the detritus of gay nightlife provide an allusive environment for the works on paper. Liquor bottles, diet cokes, tools of the trade, and other objects, decorated by Parot�s voracious hand, combine into tableaus reminiscent of both allegorical still lives and ritual caches.
This is John Parot�s second show at Western Exhibitions and his first utilizing all three of the gallery�s exhibition spaces. His work will be shown concurrently in a group show, Thinking in Color, curated by Judy Ledgerwood at the Lemberg Gallery in Detroit. He has had solo shows at Bellwether (then in Brooklyn), Van Harrison Gallery (then in Chicago) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and has been included in group shows at Mixture Contemporary in Houston, Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco, Locust Projects in Miami and Bucketrider, Bodybuilder & Sportsmen and Gallery 400 (all in Chicago). His work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, Time Out Chicago, Artnet Magazine,, NYFA Quarterly and Art on Paper. Parot is a 2004 recipient of grants from the Illinois Art Council and Artadia. John lives and works in Chicago.
