This season, the Parrish Art Museum will offer art enthusiasts and museumgoers the opportunity to view previously unexhibited work by Bay Area artist Reggie Burrows Hodges. Hodges’ piece Labor: Sound Bath will be presented as part of a continued installation, FRESH PAINT, featured by the Parrish Art Museum in collaboration with the FLAG Art Foundation. The exhibit will run from February 13 through June 9, 2025, and admission is free to the public during regular museum hours.   

Parrish Art Museum and FLAG Art Foundation

Founded in 1898, the Parrish Art Museum has celebrated the arts, landscapes, and vibrant cultures of the surrounding community and beyond for over a century. Established in the East End of Long Island, the artistic community of past and present has continually helped shape the museum’s impact.

The FLAG Art Foundation was established in New York by art patron and philanthropist Glenn Fuhrman. The non-profit opened to the public in 2008 and provides exhibition space to established and up-and-coming artists worldwide. The foundation offers prizes and initiatives to artists and helps to showcase new or previously unexhibited work through its Spotlight series. 

The FRESH PAINT exhibition represents a continued partnership between the Parrish Art Museum and FLAG Art Foundation as both organizations seek to highlight previously unseen artwork and artists. The exhibit features a single piece of artwork as part of a rotating series. The selection is dialogic, as the exhibition bypasses more typical timelines and offers a direct response to current issues. 

Incorporating the local community into the conversation, each installation includes an interpretive text from the Parrish Teen Council ARTscope, which fosters deep exploration of the visual arts by local youth, alongside a commissioned text by an invited art critic or scholar. 

Featured Artist Reggie Burrows Hodges

Originally from Compton, CA, artist Reggie Burrows Hodges’ artwork is celebrated for its visual storytelling and metaphor. With acrylic and pastels on canvas often used as the preferred medium, Hodges’ pieces frequently examine universal concepts like identity and community. Drawing the universal into the personal, his work is usually inspired by his childhood as he explores these themes.

Labor: Sound Bath (2022) 

Sound Bath is part of Hodges’s more extensive Labor series, featuring acrylic on linen. The image presents a striking, vibrant rural scene with dense green vegetation and a nearly imperceptible solitary figure. Slightly off-center in the frame, the figure blends with the surroundings, becoming almost indiscernible in the surrounding lush green landscape. The figure appears to be tending to the sun-dappled hillside, harkening to Hodge’s upbringing in California’s Central Valley, noted for its role in crop production. 

The scene represents the artist’s ability to observe and convey the relationship between the human being closely, the earth tended, and the crops produced. While the image presented appears serene, the Labor series explores the tension between these seemingly blissful agrarian scenes and the often exploitive labor conditions of the agricultural industry in California. 

Reception and Response

Museum leadership has expressed their excitement for Hodges’ fascinating piece and the ongoing collaboration between Parrish Art Museum, the FLAG Art Foundation, and the larger community. 

Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut states, “[s]howcasing these visionary artists underscores our commitment to bringing timely and compelling contemporary perspectives to the Parrish. Glenn Fuhrman and The FLAG Art Foundation are tremendous partners and friends of the Museum, and our collaboration continues to spark meaningful dialogue and engagement—further enriched by contributions from esteemed writers, scholars, and our Teen Council members, who offer their own interpretations of the work,” highlighting the significance of Hodges’ piece in continuing these conversations. 

Museumgoers can view Parrish’s Creativity Lounge exhibit to continue these important discussions.