José Parlá: Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture
Overview
Inaugurating the Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAM Fisher building, Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture was the venue's first commissioned artwork and acclaimed artist José Parlá’s first public art commission in Brooklyn. Spanning an expansive 37 feet wide by 7 feet tall, this monumental painting builds a rich, painterly history through dense layers of calligraphic scripts, gestural brushwork, street detritus, and vibrant color—creating an active visual Dialogue with the movement, performance, and energy of the theater.
Project Context & Curatorial Role
As Commissioner during my tenure at BAM, I led the commission framework, site integration, and production for Parlá’s site-specific masterpiece, permanently embedding a major visual art landmark within BAM’s state-of-the-art performance venue.
Parlá’s composition synthesizes three core source materials: pure painterly abstraction, collaged urban ephemera, and intricate calligraphic writing. Layered and often intentionally obscured, the text functions both as language and raw visual rhythm, echoing the fleeting nature of dance and performance.
Sited prominently within the BAM Fisher lobby, the painting bridges the act of seeing with the experience of writing and movement. In linking gesture to performance, the work serves as a reminder that viewers are not passive bystanders, but active participants in shaping the world produced around them from moment to moment.
Role: Commissioner
Date: June 2012—Present
Location: BAM Fisher, Brooklyn, NY
Artist: José Parlá
