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About Me

travis parkin

ARTIST

Thank you for visiting my online art gallery. My journey began in the late 1990s as a collector of contemporary and pop art, driven by a deep appreciation of beauty in all its forms. In 2008, I founded Guerrilla Graphix, a graphic design firm and pop culture emporium with locations in Albuquerque and Taos, New Mexico. As GM and Creative Director for over a decade, my creative energy found expression across T-shirts, mugs, postcards, and other media. After selling the company to employees in 2019, I embarked on a new solo path as an abstract painter.

Although the only brush I had previously held came from a hardware store, once I began painting I discovered that my 20+ years in graphic design and seasoned eye as an art collector provided me with a powerful head start. Today I work almost daily in my 1,000-square-foot studio in downtown Albuquerque, usually with Abstract Art Studio Instrumentals—a 500-song public Spotify playlist I curated—playing in the background. While I never attended art school, I have benefited greatly from online instruction by artists such as Nicolas Wilton, Adele Sypesteyn, José Trujillo, and Julie Schumer. I am also grateful to Albuquerque painter Kevin Tolman, Taos artist Jill Rounds, and New Mexico sculptor-painter Guilloume for their guidance, encouragement, and invaluable constructive criticism. Most of my physical paintings are created with premium acrylics, though I occasionally use high-grade house paint—as Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso once did—to tone my canvases. At times, hardware, cardboard, found objects, and other collage elements find their way into my work. Each piece is signed on the back, while the front bears my seal—a traditional chop carved with my initials, TJP—echoing the way Asian artists have marked their work since antiquity. In recent years, my studio practice has expanded into digital painting, bringing my background in graphic design and my longtime interest in pop art into closer conversation with my work as a painter. Some of these pieces remain distinctly abstract, while others begin with vintage or historic photographs that I crop, reconstruct, colorize, posterize, layer, and digitally paint into new compositions. The resulting works range from contemporary Pop Art portraiture to highly stylized reinterpretations of figures from music, history, and the American West. This digital work also gives me an opportunity to engage directly with artists who have shaped my visual vocabulary. Rather than simply reproducing their imagery, I borrow elements of their artistic language—color, mark-making, composition, graphic structure, or attitude—and filter them through my own sensibility. References may range from the photographic Pop Art of Andy Warhol and the raw expressionism of Jean-Michel Basquiat to the jazz-inflected abstraction of Norman Lewis, the graphic economy of Reid Miles, and other artists and movements that have influenced me as both a collector and a maker. Collectors often describe my traditional painting style as Classical Abstraction: a mode rooted in the early-to-mid-20th-century pioneers of abstraction, defined by restraint and a cerebral approach to composition. My earth-toned palette and soft-edged geometric forms reflect my lifelong connection to New Mexico—especially the vitality of its land and sky. Whether I am working with acrylic paint, collage, found materials, photographic imagery, or digital tools, the underlying process remains much the same: select, reduce, layer, disrupt, and refine until the image feels inevitable. Add a touch of sprezzatura—that artful ease that conceals discipline—and you have the essence of my work. Thank you again for stopping by.

CURRENT & UPCOMING SHOWINGS:

• My work is on display on an ongoing basis at Gallery ABQ in Albuquerque's Hoffmantown Center.. I'll be on hand at the gallery for the next Albuquerque Artscrawl on Friday, November 6, from 5:00–8:00 PM to meet visitors, collectors, and fellow art lovers. Come say hello.
• My large acrylic piece, "Fresh Paint" was juried into the annual ¡Encantada! Fine Art Show at Expo New Mexico • Hispanic Arts Gallery, 300 San Pedro Drive NE, (Gate 3 Entrance), in Albuquerque, The exhibition is open to the public: Saturday, November 7 – Sunday, November 29, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. Exhibition is closed: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thanksgiving.
• You can also see a few of my pieces at Patrician Design at 216 Gold Avenue SW in Albuquerque.
• Approximately 12 to 15 of my paintings will be hanging on the walls at Flock of Moons Brewing Company, 111 Harvard Dr SE in Albuquerque (across from the UNM campus) from April 1 to June 30, 2027. For this showing, I have elected to display affordable gallery wrapped canvases (reproductions with wood framed backing) of my original artwork. Canvases will be priced in the $100-$300 range.

• "The Ghost of Silverheels" and "Ghost Bull at Phantom Ranch" original paintings are on display at the University of New Mexico School of Law gallery in Albuquerque through May 2027 or until sold.

PUBLICATION NOTE: My original painting, "Lipstick on a Pig" is featured in the inaugural 2026 edition of Horizon Review: A Southwest Literature & Arts Review, reproduced full-page (pg. 36) and included in the contributors section.

NOTE: My work is available for placement in thoughtfully curated restaurants and cafés where the environment values design, atmosphere, and fine art. I’m selective about placement to ensure a good visual and cultural fit for both the space and the work. Pieces are professionally finished, ready to hang, and available for purchase. If you’re interested in hosting or acquiring artwork, please reach out at travis.j.parkin@gmail.com.

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