860 Washington Street is pleased to present an exhibition of four works by New York-based painter Carolanna Parlato in the lobby gallery through April 2024. Riddled with painterly gestures, bold lyricism, and an unabashed sense of color, Parlato’s paintings draw inspiration from her surrounding Brooklyn neighborhood. Fascinated by the signs, graffiti, and industrial buildings of Gowanus and Red Hook, the repeated elongated oval shape is derived from the brightly colored canoes and kayaks she observes on her daily waterfront walks.

Working simultaneously between canvases, she uses untraditional tools: palette knives, rollers, rags, spray bottles, and squeegees. Layers of translucent and impasto paint embellish the canvas with offbeat shapes, smears of bold color, patches of subtle tone, and painterly brushwork. Combining hybrid gestures and hard-edge color blocking, this process results in graphic networks drawing on traditions of the women of Abstract Expressionism, as well as contemporary works by Elizabeth Murray and Pia Fries.