Piet Parra: A Look Into the Life and Career of the Dutch Artist
If you happened to tune into Olympic skateboarding this past summer and were paying attention to athletes’ attire you probably recognized how much of it diverged from the conventions of most Olympic uniforms. More specifically, you may have noticed colorful patterns such as the representation of Rio de Janeiro’s rolling green mountains or the unique cuts like France’s all red jumpsuit. These designs all worked to represent the counterculture elements of skateboarding while paying homage to the four delegations selected for these uniforms. This splash of creativity at such a traditional event was the result of a collab between Nike SB and renowned Dutch artist, clothing designer, skateboarder, and music producer, Pieter Janssen – better known by his nickname Piet Parra.
Parra was passionate about skateboarding from a young age. In his 20s, he designed his first skateboard with the help of his artist father. After he turned pro with the now discontinued skate brand Color Blind Skateboards he got the chance to become their artistic director. This was a jumping-off point for him as he was able to do graphics for a number of notable board brands such as Enjoi and Zoo York. Around this time he also began designing posters for music venues in Amsterdam which is how his conventional art started to take off even more.
Fast forward to today and he has had a mural featured in the SF MoMA and has art and sculptures in galleries around the world from Hong Kong to Cologne. His style can be characterized as neo-pop, which is essentially trying to elevate and refine pop art. There are quite a few motifs you start to recognize when viewing his work. He often features the female form, albeit somewhat abstractly, and his characters almost all have long beak-like noses which can make them look less than fully human. My favorite part about his work is his use of strong color blocking with a consistent range of colors, often achieving a cubist Picasso-esque look.
Parra’s multifaceted talents allow any admirer to get even closer to his art, as his clothing brand “by Parra '' allows you to wear his work. A lot of his graphic tees and hoodies feature a square print of one of his artworks and the vibrance of these designs works particularly well on the muted pallet of fabrics he prints on. His clothing does diverge from his gallery art in subject matter as it features a lot more random designs such as a bicycle or a snake or any number of zany patterns. The other great thing about this brand is how diverse its offerings are with items ranging from skateboard decks to lamps. The decks are actually a part of his own separate board brand “Tired skateboards” which feature his work emblazoned on the bottom. On top of this, he is the producer for two Dutch electronic groups – which really begs the question: what can't he do?
