José Parlá’s 8 Billion Stories exemplifies the artist’s celebrated approach to layered abstraction, overlaid and enriched with his distinctive calligraphic inscriptions. The work’s title and composition eloquently underscore Parlá’s ongoing investigation into the complex layering of memories embedded within the urban environment. Parlá’s surfaces mirror the evolving patina of city walls – repositories of accumulated marks and hidden histories. Through densely textured layers, eroded surfaces, and sweeping gestural strokes, Parlá creates a visual metaphor for urban spaces that absorb, conceal, and transform over time. His signature calligraphy oscillates between fluid, script-like abstraction and a more raw, fragmented aesthetic, reflecting the dynamic and shifting nature of memory and identity. The artist’s compositions are rooted in the physicality of painting itself – a process intimately tied to movement, presence, and the passage of time. With 8 Billion Stories, Parlá offers a richly evocative narrative, one that invites viewers to navigate the layered histories that shape our lived experience.