Steven Parrino Biography
Steven Parrino (1958-2005) was an artist born in New York.
Parrino earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982 from Parsons School of Design in New York. In the 1970s he began attacking, cutting, tearing and twisting canvas. With a distinctly nihilistic attitude, Parrino in many ways reflected the rebellions of the American punk music scene and subcultures, translating that chaotic soul into his work. Despite his embrace of chaos, his strong awareness and understanding of modernism, semiotics and the theoretical texts of minimalists such as Donald Judd and Frank Stella, awakened the possibilities of painting as an object or as a real fact. Parrino's multiple interests, including comics, hot rods, noise music, come together in his practice and work. In a 2003 interview, he said “I want to be deeply touched by art, by life. I came to painting at the moment of his death, not to breathe his last breath, but to caress his inanity” Steven Parrino, The No Texts, 2003.
Parrino's work has been exhibited in museums and exhibitions around the world: Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2007; Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2007; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2006; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, 2005-07; Massimo De Carlo Contemporary Art, Milan, 2003.
Parrino tragically died at the age of 46 in a motorcycle accident in January 2005.
