Emrys Parry Retrospective Exhibition, 2023
Described as a key figure in Welsh art, Parry was born in nearby Nefyn in 1941. The show featured works spanning his 65 year-long career.
Emrys Parry’s work focuses on the local landscape, ancestry, religion, Welsh language, legends and memory to create multi layered compositions. Critics have described Parry as “Not only a fine draughtsman but one of Wales’s most gifted iconic painters” (Bernard Mitchell, Photographer).
Parry was Head of Diploma and Diagnostic Studies at Norwich School of Art and Design until 1996. He has exhibited across the UK and has work held as part of the National Library of Wales collection. He is a member of The Royal Cambrian Academy.
Amanda Geitner, Director of the East Anglia Art Fund said “Consistent in all his work is Parry’s masterful control of structure, texture, and colour, within which the artist orchestrates an enthralling play between geometry and figuration. There is a narrative generosity to this work that invites us to look, decipher and understand. Touching on relationships and memories that are deeply personal to Parry, his work reminds us that from the private depths of our minds we can communicate to one another something marvellous.”
The retrospective will also be supported by the release of a new book (for sale at the gallery) providing visuals of additional work and insights from contemporaries.
Although Emrys Parry left Gwynedd in the 1950s to pursue his career in art in England, a mythic sense of belonging and an unshakeable connection to the Llŷn Peninsula has been the driving creative force behind his work for 65 years. It has been said his self-imposed exile away from his beloved Nefyn and homeland gives his narrative work their power.
He lives and works in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Images below
