Rex Parker: Twenty Five Prints
An exhibition presented by the Kalo Foundation of Park Ridge
Sunday, March 19 at 1:00 p.m. at Iannelli Studios
“I am delighted that the Kalo Foundation of Park Ridge is presenting my new exhibition Rex Parker: Twenty Five Prints,” a collection of dramatic Art Deco prints, said Parker.
On exhibition are Rex’s fine-art print series, “The Park Ridge Art Colony,” celebrating Kalo, Clara Barck Welles, Grant Wood, Alfonso Iannelli, John Alden Carpenter, Frederick Goudy and The Village Press.
Parker’s uniquely colorful, Art Deco-inspired posters for many local events will be on display. These works included posters for citywide street fairs, outdoor concerts, local charity drives, the bold and brilliant posters for the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra’s concert series.
Among the show’s highlights is Parker’s clever take on, “Harrison Ford and the Epic in Stone,” Park Ridge native and epic movie star Harrison Ford was the inspiration for this sophisticated poster, along with the original, ornate “jungle” grillwork of the 1920s-era Pickwick Theatre, seen behind the heroic figure. The poster evokes adventure in a setting of Art Deco drama — a cinematic experience unique to the Pickwick Theatre that intrigued a young Harrison Ford — and youth of all ages, before and since. Recalling the Saturday afternoon serial cliffhangers of Ford’s (and the artist’s) boyhood.
One of his own favorite series centers on the Park Ridge building that first caught his artist’s eye. “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” posters — herald movies, locally raised celebrity actors and other creatives that enriched the history of Park Ridge; a series some have called a modern Art Deco masterpiece. Parker simply calls it doing good works.
Rex will present an original, illustrated program, “Rex Parker: Twenty Five Prints,” on Sunday March 19 at 1:00 p.m. at Iannelli Studios. All are welcome to this wonderful event.
