In this catalog of Leslie Parke's paintings there are themes that have recurred throughout the course of her career: issues about light, illusion, a sense of time and a specific place. But most importantly now she is to making paintings that serve as portals through which viewers can enter and connect to that which in the universe supports us.

Leslie Parke's photographs of the last three years grapple with the Modernist concern with abstraction and surface, but bring this forward into a 21st-century digital language. They incorporate contemporary concerns about the nature of reality, the trustworthiness of our perceptions and the sustainability of our civilization, while offering visual and intellectual delight.

EVERYTHING IS REAL is a catalog of paintings by Leslie Parke that are both abstract and representational. Each image in the series exists in the real world - an old board of insulation, an industrial garage door, a silo and corncrib, a track in the mud and wrapped cargo on pallets. At the same time, each has been composed to accentuate the inherently abstract qualities of the reflective surfaces and their interplay with light.

"What Remains" is a catalog of recent paintings by Leslie Parke for an exhibition at Gremillion and Company, Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. As Parke says, "the more elusive and impossible the image is to paint, the more it interests me. A painting succeeds for me when it seems as though the light is emanating from inside." Leslie Parke is an artist from upstate New York and a recipient of the Esther and Adolph Gottlieb Grant for Individual Support. Her work has been exhibited in museums in the United States, Israel and Argentina, and is in numerous private and corporate collections.

A full color catalog of paintings by Leslie Parke with an essay by Ann Landi, contributing editor to ArtNews, and interview by Miriam N. Kotzin excerpted from Per Contra Magazine. Designed by Carol Jessop.