Parish Gallery was a

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

art gallery located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. It was active from 1991 to 2013.

History

The Parish Gallery was founded by Norman Parish in 1991. Parish had moved to Washington, DC from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in 1988, and opened the Parish Gallery in 1991. The gallery was described by

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

as an art gallery "that spotlighted

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

artists at a time when few other galleries concentrated on showing their work." The gallery closed in 2013 upon Parish's death.

Artists represented

In the 22 years that the gallery operated, it generally focused on African-American artists and artists of color, but overall exhibited the work of more than 170 artists from the United States,

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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, and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, including notable artists such as

Sam Gilliam Sam Gilliam ( ; November 30, 1933 – June 25, 2022) was an American abstract Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor, and Visual arts education, arts educator. Born in Mississippi, and raised in Kentucky, Gilliam spent his entire adult life in ...

Richard Mayhew Richard Mayhew (April 3, 1924 – September 26, 2024) was an American landscape painter, illustrator, and arts educator, of Native and African American descent. His abstract, brightly colored landscapes are informed by his experiences as an Afri ...

Willard Wigan Willard Wigan, (born June 1957) is a British sculptor from Ashmore Park Estate, Wednesfield, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants, who makes micro miniature sculptures. His sculptures are typically placed in the eye of a needle or on the head ...

, Lou Stovall,

Percy Martin Percy Martin (1871-1958) was an American-born British engineer and automobile manufacturer. Born in Columbus, Ohio 19 June 1871 he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in electrical engineering, from Ohio State University in 1 ...

Evangeline Montgomery Evangeline Juliet "EJ" Montgomery (born May 2, 1930, in New York City, New York) is an American artist. Known primarily for her metal work, she has also worked as a printmaker, lithographer and curator. She received the Women's Caucus for Art L ...

, Victor Ekpuk,

Lois Mailou Jones Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and Teacher, educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the ...

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (, ) (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York C ...

, Herbert Gentry, Bruce McNeil, and

Wadsworth Jarrell Wadsworth Aikens Jarrell (born November 20, 1929) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born in Albany, Georgia, and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation, he became heav ...

Notable exhibitions

In a 1992 review, The Washington Post art critic noted that "It's all too seldom one gets the chance in Washington to see the work of Jamaican or other Caribbean artists in the intimate setting of a private gallery. It's therefore a treat to get acquainted with the works of Cecil Cooper,

Kofi Kayiga Kofi Kayiga (born December 1943),
JamaicaArts.com. formerly ...

and Bryan McFarlane at the Parish Gallery this month." In 1995, a different Washington Post art critic, in reviewing a show by New York artist Lorenzo Pace, wrote that "This is a remarkably effective exhibition, particularly given the small space and a medium that often appeals to the head rather than the heart." The same art critic also wrote in a different 1995 review that "Minimalism's antithesis, abstract expressionism, can be seen in recent paintings by Kathryn Henneberry being exhibited at Parish Gallery. They are wonderfully exuberant works, big, vivid fields of color that convey a sense of spontaneity and freedom. If minimalism comes mainly from the mind, Henneberry's works come from the heart and soul." The Washington Post's 1996 review of Wadsworth Jarrell observed that "Jarrell's works still pulse with the repetitious

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

s, vibrant colors and

geometric Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

symbols that Africobra drew from

African art African art encompasses modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual cultures originating from indigenous African diaspora, African communities across the African continent. The definition may also include the ar ...

." A 2012 article about artist Maria-Lana Queen quotes a collector as stating that "When I looked at her work for the first time I was blown away by the color from this abstract artist." A review of British artist Willard Wigan that same year stated that "he works of groundbreaking British artist Willard Wigan inspire awe because they are so tiny."

References

{{coord, 38.9046, -77.0619, display=title Art museums and galleries in Washington, D.C. Art museums and galleries established in 1991 1991 establishments in Washington, D.C. Contemporary art galleries in the United States African-American art dealers