Kenton Parker Always Sorry Flower Shop

Kenton Parker ‘s “Always Sorry” Flower Shop will be on view at the home and collection of Dan & Kathryn Mikesell starting. Located in the neighborhood of Morningside, a stone’s throw from the northern borders of the Miami Design District, Kenton Parker’s installation is quaintly nestled in the collectors back yard and will be available for viewing Friday, December 4th, 2015 from 9 AM – 12 PM or by appointment throughout Miami Art Week.

Kenton Parker (b. 1968, Grass Valley, CA) received his BFA from San Diego State University. He has exhibited work internationally, most recently at the Arts Initiative and the SOHO House. Parker is represented by Primary in Miami and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Parker’s work addresses issues of self-improvement, beauty, and masculinity, expressing rebellion against societal pressures to be perfect or successful, while exploring the landscape as a metaphor for the body.
Parker’s studio practice is content driven, full of the charisma and charm of the artist’s personality, and able to tackle any media. Drawing from the psychological underbelly of humanity, Parker’s work develops from crude and witty musings incessantly scribbled on thousands of papers and gathered into an archive. These ideas are then translated into sculpture, painting, installation, videos, and murals. The overall result is a multitude of interpretations that tap into the dark humor of lifetime achievements and disappointments.

Through careful observation of his surroundings and meticulous sourcing, Parker cultivates a perverse ethos, where viewers can get a glimpse into his crude, yet contemplative persona, whose intellect is matched by sexual deviation, marked by his personal experiences navigating the glorious and troubling Los Angeles landscape.

Dan & Kathryn Mikesell : Holding membership at every major non-profit institution in the city (Locust Projects, Cannonball, MOCA North Miami and the Pérez Art Museum Miami), and face time with major commercial galleries worldwide, the Mikesell’s are certainly Miami’s own Medici.

The Fountainhead Residency, located just across from the family home in Morningside, and the Fountainhead Studios in Little Haiti serve as incubators to local and visiting artists seeking to experience Miami as a site that harbors and inspires creative exploration. Kathryn, according to Dan, was the founder and driving force behind the Residency; she oversees all of the logistical and practical operation of the house where anywhere from five to seven or eight artists at a time sleep, eat, exchange work, trade peer critiques and engage in hardcore studio time.