About Nicola
Italian-born, American Nicola Parente is a reductive abstract artist. He explores inspiration garnered from observation of movement and light, and translated into an enduring, nurturing and sublime vision of our world. Parente’s artistic vision explores his perceptions of the diversity of culture and nature encountered while living and traveling on multiple continents.
Nicola Parente’s studio practice includes painting, installations, photography, sculpture, civic art, set design, and textile design. Nicola’s interdisciplinary work explores the ever changing impact to our landscape and communities. Inspired by changes in the evolution of metropolitan cities, he is interested in reflecting the intersections of daily life, and is intrigued by the interplay of the fluid and static elements of the urban matrix. According to Parente “deconstruction, construction, and reconstruction along with the vast diversity of the ever-changing neighborhoods play a large influence in the creation of my artworks.”
Over the last two decades, Parente has exhibited in major international museums and gallery shows including Manuel Felguerez Museum of Abstract Art (Zacatecas, Mexico), Museo de Guadalupe (Zacatecas, Mexico), The Art Car Museum (Houston), and Serenade Art House (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), as well as a touring exhibition between Esbjerg Denmark and Houston Texas.
Artist Statement
We live in a fast moving world. We are unable to capture the changes around us. We feel trapped in a fast moving highway of transformation. I sit. I breathe. I inhale the thoughts, the ideas, the movements that are overwhelming, intense, rigid yet fluid, beautiful yet disturbing, moving and captivating. I digest the moment, this particular moment. I allow myself to bask in it.My work struggles to define the intersection that is present in daily urban life. I am intrigued by the interplay between the fluid and the static elements present in today’s urban tapestry. My work investigates untangling the chaos, the brilliance of technology, human development, nature’s vibrancy and ultimate demise. I document it in the best way I know how, art, my only voice.
Photo by Martin Holmes
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Manuel Felguérez Museum of Abstract Art, Zacatecas, Mexico | Museo de Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico | Apache Corporation, USA | JW Marriott, Houston TX | Kanaly Trust, Houston TX | Banco Santander, Spain | Cedar Park Regional Medical Center, Austin TX | Parker Drilling Company, USA | Mann Eye Institute, Houston TX | Boston Consulting Group, Houston TX | Pride International, USA | University of Houston, Energy Research Park | Transwestern | The Fairmont Hotel, Dallas TX | The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco CA | Vestas Technology, USA | Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston TX | Neo’s Architects, Houston TX | Precision Drilling, USA | Triad Resources, Houston TX | Oasis Petroleum | Bailey’s American Grille, Seabrook TX | Palantir Capital Management, Houston TX | Vineyard on the Square, Sugarland TX Burford & Maney L.L.P., Houston TX | Accenture, Houston TX | Superior Energy Services | Tam International, USA | METRO, Houston | The Kroger Co., Sugarland TX | Haiku by Big Ass Fans, Houston TX | Hilton Austin Convention Center, Austin TX | The Post Oak Hotel, Houston TX | Castleton Commodities International, Stamford CT | Hilton Americas, Houston TX | International Woman’s Foundation, Marfa TX | Hilton Austin Convention Center, Austin TX | PricewaterhouseCoopers, Charlotte, NC. | Corrum Capital, Charlotte NC | Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Houston TX
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
2021 What I did on my Covid Vacation, Art Car Museum, Houston, TC (Catalog)
2017 Genesis In Pricipio, Museo de Guadalupe, Zacateca Mexico (Catalog)
2016 Rorpost, An International Art Energy Collaboration Exhibition, Art Car Museum, Houston TX (Catalog)
2011 Al Borde del Despertar, Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Zacatecas Mexico (Solo Exhibit - Catalog)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Musings of Human Condition, Laura Rathe Fine Art, Houston TX
2015 No Color Without Light, Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston TX
2013 Pelagico, Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston TX
2012 Bishangari, Fotofest 2012 Biennial, Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston TX
2011 / 12 Al Borde del Despertar, Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Zacatecas Mexico (Catalog)
2011 In the Light, Serenade Art House, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2011 Edge of Awakening, Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Dallas TX (Catalog)
2008 Journey, Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston TX (Catalog)
2006 Edge of Urban Time, Thornwood Gallery, Houston TX (Catalog)
PUBLIC ART & INSTALLATIONS PROJECTS
* projects with community or groups to reflect cultural historic or heritage themes.
2020 Serape Trail, Elysian Viaduct Underpass - Site Specific Installation, Houston TX
*2020 Weaving Northside, Sculpture + Dance, Houston TX (Collaboration with Tami Moschioni and Adam Castaneda)
*2019 Snapshot, Public Sculpture, Houston TX (Collaboration with Tami Moschioni)
*2018 Color Bursting Hermann Park, Site Specific Installation, Hermann Park, Houston TX (Collaboration with Tami Merrick)
*2018 Poet Trees Installation, Writers in the Schools, Eleanor Tinsley Park at Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston
2018 Blue Vessel of Light, Houston Sculpture Month, Magpies & Peacocks, Houston, TX
2017 Art Trek, Heights Boulevard Sculpture Exhibit, Houston, TX (Catalog)
*2017 Scaped Senses, Site Specific Installation, Near Northside, Houston TX (Collaboration with Tami Moschioni)
*2017 Poet Trees Installation, Writers in the Schools, Eleanor Tinsley Park at Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston
*2013 Colony Collapse, site specific gallery installation, micro scope 1824, Houston TX
*2010 Terminus, Video/Painting Installation, Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre, Houston TX
2010 Edge of Awakening, Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Houston TX (Catalog)
*2009 / 10 Natural Recyclers, outdoor installation, Art League Houston, Houston TX (collaboration w Dyvia Murthy)
*2009 Wasted Resolve, site specific gallery installation, Art League Houston, Houston TX (collaboration w Dyvia Murthy)
*2008 Terminus, E_Merging II, Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre, Houston TX (featured artist, set & costume design for ballet “Terminus”)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Summer Group Show, ELLIO Fine Art, Houston TX
2022 White Linen Night, ELLIO Fine Art, Houston TX
2021 What I did on my Covid Vacation, Art Car Museum, Houston TX
2021 37th Open Juried Exhibition, Visual Arts Alliance, Houston TX (Juror: Harry Cooper, PhD Senior Curator and Head of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C.)
2018 Here and Now, Laura Rathe Fine Art, Dallas TX
2018 Blue Vessel of Light, Houston Sculpture Month, Magpies & Peacocks, Houston, TX
*2018 Color Bursting Hermann Park, Site Specific Installation, Hermann Park, Houston, TX (Collaboration with Tami Moschioni)
*2017 Scaped Senses, Site Specific Installation, Near Northside, Houston, TX (Collaboration with Tami Moschioni)
2017 Transcendent Light, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2017 Genesis In Pricipio, Museo de Guadalupe, Zacateca Mexico (Catalog)
2017 Monotype Monothon, Collaborative Print Projects with Master Printer Patrick Masterson, Rice University Media Center, Houston TX
2017 Art Trek, Heights Boulevard Sculpture Exhibit, Houston, TX (Catalog)
*2017 Rorpost, An International Art Energy Collaboration Exhibition, Houston City Hall, Houston, TX
2016 Proyecto 25 Artistas, Irma Valerio Galerias, Zacatecas Mexico
*2016 Rorpost, An International Art Energy Collaboration Exhibition, Art Car Museum, Houston TX
*2016 Rorpost, An International Art Energy Collaboration Exhibition, City Hall and Arier Gammeltorv at UXSyd, Esbjerg Denmark
*2016 Poet Trees Installation, Writers in the Schools, Eleanor Tinsley Park at Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston
*2016 Poet Trees Installation, Writers in the Schools, East End Esplanade at Navigation, Houston, TX
2015 596 Miles, The International Woman’s Foundation, Marfa TX
2015 12-Thirteen, A Collaborative Art Project, Winter Street Gallery, Houston TX (Catalog)
2015 Flow, Camiba Art, Austin TX
2015 The Originals, Winter Street Gallery, Houston TX (Catalog)
2014 Seven Selected Artists, Hyde Park Gallery, Houston TX
2014 Print Austin 2014, Flatbed Press Contemporary Print Fair, Burning Bones Press, Austin TX
2013 Intervals, Kingwood Fine Art Gallery, Lone Star College, Kingwood TX (Catalog)
2013 Texas Top Thirty, Art on 5th, Austin TX
2013 Multiplicity, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston TX (Curated by Sally Sprout). Featuring Master Printer Pat Masterson’s collaborations with Trenton Doyle Hancock, Jim Isermann, Udomsak Krisanamis, Francesca Fuchs, Patrick Palmer, Nicola Parente, Lamar Peterson, Dan Rizzle and James Surls.
2013 Print Auction Exhibition, Houston Center for Photography, Houston TX 2012
2012 Inaugural Exhibition, Wade Wilson Art, Santa Fe NM
2010 Gambol, Art League Houston, Houston TX (juried exhibition, Miranda Lash, Juror, Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art, Museum of Art in New Orleans)
2010 Miami ArtBase / Red Dot, Aleatoric Art, Miami FL
AWARDS & HONORS
2020 HAA, City of Houston, Support for Artists and Creative Individuals Grant, “Weaving Northside”
2019 Recipient, Support for Artists and Creative Individuals Grant, Houston Arts Alliance for “Snapshot” (Permanent Public Sculpture)
2018 Recipient, Scaped Senses named winner “Best ReUse Project in Texas”
2018 Recipient, Bayou Trails Grant, a creative place-making project funded by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Our Town initiative, The Brown Foundation, Wells Fargo and the City of Houston. “Color Bursting Hermann Park” was a site-specific multidisciplinary installation
2017 Recipient, Individual Artist Grant, Houston Arts Alliance for “Scaped Senses”
2016 Recipient, Digital Assets Management:Solutions for Artists, Patricia Hernandez, Studio One Archive Resource
2014 Recipient, Houston Press, “Houston’s Top 10 Painters”
2014 Recipient, Modern Luxury Houston, #1 “Best of the City, Top Five: Ones to watch in ’14”
2013 Recipient, Houston Press 100 Creatives, Houston TX
2012 Recipient, Creative Capital: “Strategic Planning for Artists” Master Class, Houston TX
2011 Recipient, 2011 Cadillac Spirit of Texas Honoree, KHOU (CBS) TV, Houston TX
2010 Juror, Houston Art Colony Association for the annual Bayou City Arts Festival
2009 Juror, Black & White, IIDA, Art & Artifacts Photography Competition
2009 Art for Arthritis ’09 Featured Artist, Houston TX
2009 Houston Arts Alliance Peer Panel Review
2009 Juror, Houston Art Colony Association for the annual Bayou City Arts Festival
2008 / 09 Recipient of Artist Cohort, Professional Development Workshop, DiverseWorks and Houston Arts Alliance, Houston TX
2008 Recipient of Creative Capital Professional Development Workshop, DiverseWorks, Houston TX
2008 Juror, Houston Art Colony Association for the annual Bayou City Arts Festival
2008 002houston Magazine – Cover Contest Honorable Mention
2007 Juror, Houston Art Colony Association for the annual Bayou City Arts Festival
2005 Visual Arts Alliance, Bank of America Building, Houston TX (Honorable Mention, juried exhibition, Harvey Bott, Juror)
BOOKS | CATALOGS
“20”, Laura Rathe Fine Art, 2019
O’Donnell / Snider Corporate Interiors, 2018
Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Dominic Walsh and Gabriella Nissen, 2015
Visualseen, Published in France in collaboration with Texas French Arts Alliance and the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston, 2014 (featured artist)
Laurel, Ana, “A Journey from Inception to Creation:An Interview with Nicola Parente”, UHDT, The Bayou Review,
A Literary and Visual Arts Journal, Vol 26, Issue 1, Spring 2012
Aleatoric Art in the 21st Century, A Study of Change in Contemporary Fine Art , with text by Ray Cabarga, Aleatoric Art Gallery 2012
Moore Alannah, The Creative Person’s Website Builder, The llex Press Limited, 2012
Nicola Parente Al Borde del Despertar Edge pf Awakening, Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Zacatecas Mexico, 2011
Fenberg, Steven, “Arts”, learn advance achieve enjoy, Houston Endowment 2008 Annual Report, 2009
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Mid America Arts Alliance, Artist Inc Facilitator 2019
Writers in the Schools, Houston, Board of Trustees, 2016 - 2018
Avenue CDC (Community Development Corporation), Houston, Board of Trustees, 2015 – present
Greater Northside Management District, Tour de Northside Planning Committee
Go Culture, Committee Member, 2014 - present
Art Colony Association, Houston, Board of Trustees (President, Vice-President, Secretary,) 2008 - 2014
Bayou City Art Festival, Education Committee, Judging Committee Chair
Art Chatter Critique Group, Houston TX
Winter, Spring & Silver Street Studios, Artist Advisory Committee
Writers in the Schools, Houston TX, Outreach Committee
EDUCATION
M.B.A., 2004, University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
B.A., 1988, Kings College, Wilkes-Barre, PA