Steve Parker

Description

Steve Parker is an artist and musician based in Austin, Texas. He is the recipient of the Rome Prize, the Pollock-Krasner Award, the Tito’s Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is currently a McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum. Parker makes social sculptures: large-scale performances that facilitate meaningful exchanges between the public, densely-layered sculptural objects, and the environment. His projects include an outdoor opera for 1.5 million bats, megaphone choir, and echolocation devices; monumental ear trumpets inspired by obsolete WWII surveillance tools; an outdoor bird sanctuary made of acoustic mirrors, bird feeders, and 12th-century liturgical chants; cathartic transportation symphonies for pedicabs, automobiles, and bicycles; and sonic healing meditations played by NCAA marching bands. His work often situates the viewer as a performer, engaging them in new forms of listening. Exhibition and performance highlights include the American Academy in Rome (Italy), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Arkansas), CUE Art Foundation (New York), the Fusebox Festival (Texas), Gwangju Media Art Festival (Korea), the Lincoln Center Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic inSIGHT, the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), MASS MoCA (Massachusetts), Rich Mix (London), SXSW, and Tanglewood (Massachusetts). Photo courtesy of Steve Parker.