Photos + Q&A by Domenica Bucalo
Parker Daley Garcia, Visual Director and Curator at Pen + Brush Gallery.
How old are you?
I am 33 years old.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
When I was a small child, I wanted to be the next Britney Spears. So, a singer, I guess. As I got older that definitely shifted. I can say, I always wanted to be somebody but what that looked like changed. I didn’t become involved in art or art history until college.
What has been an influential experience in your life?
Traveling is the most impactful thing you can do for yourself, at least in my view. I love being reminded that there is a world beyond that which is familiar to me. If I had to say a specific moment that influenced me that most, it was studying art in France when I was barely twenty years old. It wasn’t a glamourous time but there was something about being an American abroad during that time that really humbled me but also freed my thinking. I was finally exposed to incredible thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir and Colette Guillaumin. It was a very influential time for me.
Can you talk about the historical foundation of Pen + Brush Gallery?
Pen + Brush is historic. It’s a 130-year-old nonprofit, founded in 1894 in New York City, that fights for gender equity in the arts. Pen + Brush has only ever shown and published work by women and gender expansive artists. It was founded during a time when women could not study art in the same way men could. For example, women were not allowed into critiques, art schools, or often to even exhibit their work or publish their writing. Pen + Brush was founded as a safe space for women to exhibit and discuss their art and writing. The gallery has stringent standards that make the point that women, and now gender expansive artists, are creating work that is just worthy of recognition and impactful to society as their male counterparts. Artists that we show join a roster of extraordinary thinkers who are part of our legacy; including such notables as renowned photographer Lola Flash, whose exhibition at Pen + Brush was reviewed in the NY Times, Rowan Renee, Sarah E. Wright, author of the groundbreaking and acclaimed 1969 novel This Child’s Gonna Live, the first published female photojournalist Jesse Tarbox Beals, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Pulitzer Prize winners, Marianne Moore, Margaret Widemer and Pearl Buck, who was also a Nobel Prize recipient. Today, Pen + Brush operates a 5,500 square foot state-of-the-art facility in New York City’s Flatiron District, just one block south of Madison Square Park. Our exhibitions offer collectors, curators, and the public the chance to experience diverse work by women and gender expansive artists that reflect the landscapes of contemporary art and writing today.
Do we activate better chances at positive change when history is brought in the conversation?
I think history is always worth bringing into the conversation but, perhaps, it does not always need to be harped upon. Knowledge, to me, can never be a bad thing. Awareness can never be a bad thing. It is how you deal with that knowledge and awareness that can sometimes negate the potential for positive change. In Pen + Brush’s case, history becomes a way to validate the organization and to show the depth of our perspective. So, yes, I think is certainly does help to activate positive change.
Can you tell us about upcoming project at Pen + Brush?
Currently we have on a show at Pen + Brush that I curated called The Now: Fever Dreams which deals with the much rhapsodized question of dreams in art, but specifically fever dreams, as artists react to untenable environments. It features work by Antonia Bara, Heather Brammeier, Martha Bone, Sandra Cavanagh, Angela Fraleigh, Crystal Marshall, Tara Sabharwal, Heather Marie Scholl, and Jia Sung and will be on view until August 16th. Also, on view this summer is an installation by experiential design studio, Less than 3, that transforms our exterior and front gallery into a forest- like dream, as well as a site-specific work by Heather Brammeier which uses the allure of provisional structures, treehouses and tents, to spur the desire to climb and hide. Building upon Fever Dreams and the notion of the untenable; the tent has been flipped over and suspended. It’s really quite cool.
Then, for our massive Fall 2024 exhibition, we will have a solo show of brand new work by Italian artist Michela Martello called JUST LOVE, which will feature a new immersive installation. I am excited about this exhibition because Martello is approaching the work through a new lens—the writings of Haruki Murakami. Visitors will walk within and around 18 painted fiber panels that are 14 feet in height and torqued into sculptural forms. The show is informed by Martello’s own travels and deep dives into specific Murakami writings.
How does the financial component of a non-profit affect the mission-driven curatorial aspect? And what do you wish for institutions like yours in order to continue to thrive?
Financing matters for everyone but it really matters for publicly funded nonprofits like Pen + Brush. That said, curatorially and mission-wise, I am not bound by bureaucracy and we are set up in a way that lets us exist apart from commercial trends. I have the freedom to show a massive, site-specific installation and allow emerging artists to experiment in our space without the market pressure of needing to show only work that has a guarantee to sell. I wish for all nonprofits, but especially for those like Pen + Brush, that are doing work that is so urgently necessary to make sure people and voices do not slip through the cracks, that funding was consistent. To thrive, we need support and recognition, just like the artists we fight for.
Your favorite place in New York?
You mean, other than Pen + Brush? I want to be interesting and answer this with some incredibly cool spot but honestly, Central Park. It is such a special place. I love laying on the grass in Sheep Meadow. Also, I genuinely love places like The Odeon and St. Theo’s. The food is incredible but the vibes and wine are better. The Chelsea Hotel is also a place that is like some sort of center of worship for me.
Preferred soundtrack while working?
Right now, you know I am listening to Chappell Roan day in and day out. Especially at the gallery. It’s Chappell’s summer, I’m just here.
Would you agree that a dance floor is never simply a dance floor?
A dance floor is never as simple as just a dance floor.
Will you ever leave NY? And if yes, where will you go?
I will never give up on New York City. Coming up those subway steps every morning, I know this is exactly where I need to be. New York has raised me, changed me, and broken me. Every time I think, “Okay, I know NYC”, it completely surprises me and I realize for the thousandth time, it’s an unknowable city. I can’t say that I think I will ever leave.
Photos + Q&A by Domenica Bucalo
