Healing Arts Gallery

Opening Reception

Friday, September 17th, 2021 from 7-9 PM

We invite you to join us for the solo exhibition of Paula Walters Parker at Art Therapy Place’s Healing Arts Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

About the Exhibition

Paula Walters Parker creates art that grapples with the daily traumas and suffering of navigating a western society steeped in anti-Black biases. She draws influence from not only her recent and childhood memories, but news headlines, songs, and family history. Her work serves as a commentary on the history of racial and gendered injustice, as experienced through both personal and collective trauma.

Parker’s meditative practice of an “Active Imagination” is used as both a psychological tool to engage with the systemic barriers she faces and a framework for relinquishing control. Through this process, “accidents” are revealed in moments of crisis, which telegraph through her physical layers of colorful material, preserving their marks in time. Dynamic, gestural strokes communicate Parker’s deep attraction to conflict and the possibilities of resolution only through meaningful personal excavation.  

Located on the corner of Jefferson Street and Cypress Avenue

September 17th through October 15th, 2021

About the Artist

Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, Parker immigrated to the U.S. in 1986, settling with her family in Brooklyn NY. She studied fashion in New York, and then visual arts at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, followed by a BFA in Fine Arts and Art Education at Parsons School of Design. Her career in the arts began through the Guggenheim Museum, which led to teaching at both Parsons School of Design and with the NYC DOE. She is now pursuing a Masters in Creative Art Therapy at the Pratt Institute, while facilitating unique learning opportunities for the public high school students she works with in Manhattan.

Paula has curated and participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout New York City, and lives with her family in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Instagram: @paulawaltersparker