José Parla’s new solo exhibition, “Engrams,” will open at Ben Brown Fine Arts on June 10, 2026, with a private viewing session on Tuesday, June 9, from 6:00 to 7:30pm, and a book signing from 5:00 to 6:00pm. The exhibition, which will be on view until July 31, 2026, gathers nine new paintings on canvas, and six works on paper. Ben Brown Fine Arts is located at 12 Brook’s Mews, London, UK.
ENGRAMS is the first iteration of a broader investigation of the same name – an acronym for Exploring Neighborhoods, Gestures Recording Archived Memory Spaces. The research is being developed during Parlá’s current residency at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, where he is this year’s Alan Kanzer Artist Resident, and forms part of his ongoing exploration of the dialogue between art and neuroscience.
See description and Parlá’s statement below.
Description: An engram is the physical trace a memory leaves in the brain – a living, ever-shifting pattern that reactivates and reshapes itself each time it is recalled. By this understanding, memory is reconstruction rather than retrieval, and the act of remembering becomes a creative gesture in its own right – the principle that underpins the series.
Three landscapes inform this body of work: the radiant, expansive sunsets of Havana, Cuba; the dense, immersive greenery of the forests in Hakone, Japan; and the subterranean energy of New York City’s urban corridors. Where Old Master painters have historically returned to the same landscape day after day, documenting the shifting subtleties of light through direct observation, Parlá inverted this practice. He visited each site only once, then painted from memory alone, allowing the act of remembering, with all its stretching, reconfiguring and transforming, to do the compositional work. As he puts it, “by activating the same memory repeatedly, the accuracy of the image progressively starts dissolving, allowing doors of genuine imagination to swing open.” [. . .]
Artist’s Statement: I am honored to share that my new solo exhibition, ENGRAMS, opens at Ben Brown Fine Arts in London on 10 June 2026, with a book signing and private view on Tuesday 9 June. The exhibition gathers nine new paintings on canvas and six works on paper, all made over the past year in my Brooklyn studio.
The work takes its name from the concept of the engram, the physical mark a memory leaves on the brain, a living pattern that reshapes itself each time it is recalled. By this understanding, remembering is not retrieval but reconstruction, and every act of memory becomes its own creative gesture. That principle is the spine of the series.
Three landscapes shaped the body of work: the radiant sunsets of Havana, the dense forests of Hakone in Japan, and the layered subterranean energy of New York City’s urban corridors. Where the Old Masters returned to the same view day after day to document light through direct observation, I did the opposite. I visited each place only once. Back in the studio, I painted from memory alone, letting recollection, with all its drift and transformation, do the compositional work. As I put it in conversation with the gallery, “by activating the same memory repeatedly, the accuracy of the image progressively starts dissolving, allowing doors of genuine imagination to swing open.”
ENGRAMS is the first iteration of a broader investigation. The title is an acronym for Exploring Neighborhoods, Gestures Recording Archived Memory Spaces, which I am developing during my current residency at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, where I am this year’s Alan Kanzer Artist-in-Residence. The work continues my ongoing exploration of the dialogue between art and neuroscience. A recent lecture I gave as part of the residency can be viewed here.
If you can join us in London, I would love to see you at the opening.
For more information, see https://www.benbrownfinearts.com/exhibitions/232-jose-parla-engrams/?ct=t(ENGRAMS_EBLAST_JUNE_OPENING_2026_JPS)&goal=0_dcb048ee01-6c3291190e-194881493&mc_cid=6c3291190e&mc_eid=aafc1c2579
[Photo above: José Parlá at work in his Brooklyn, New York studio.]
José Parla’s new solo exhibition, “Engrams,” will open at Ben Brown Fine Arts on June 10, 2026, with a private viewing session on Tuesday, June 9, from 6:00 to 7:30pm, and a book signing from 5:00 to 6:00pm. The exhibition, which will be on view until July 31, 2026, gathers nine new paintings on canvas, and