Gina Parr was born in Exeter, Devon in 1957. While studying for a Fine Art Degree, her work developed from Painting to Performance Art. In 1979 she gained a First Class Honours Degree and in the 80’s was very active in producing Performances in galleries and art spaces and lecturing in Art and Design. After further study at Chelsea College of Art she moved into Set Design for Television and has enjoyed a highly successful 27 year long career, creating a huge variety of stages and studio sets across many genres. Always approached with a painterly eye, her Production Design credits include Shooting Stars, Goodness Gracious Me, The Brit Awards, The Royal Variety Performance, Mercury Music Prize and many major B.B.C. Sports Events. She has lectured and mentored in Art and Design and Design for Television and most recently has started a working relationship as an Artist with Ravenscourt School and Technology College in London.

In 2003 Gina returned to her first love painting. Her work is a minestrone of sources: memories of past events, childhood, family, places lived in and visited and working life; all common human experience. A country girl at heart, Gina grew up in Devon where rolling hills, wild moors and dramatic seascapes played a large and influential part in her childhood. For the past 30 years she has lived and worked in London... a long but temporary urban existence which seeps into her work. She is not interested in making faithful representations of places or events, but rather views the action of painting as making visible her inner landscape, resulting in work that is sometimes semi-abstract, sometimes abstract, often featuring growth, apertures and openings. Of her work Gina says, “The clue to the painted story is often in the title. Sometimes I use wordplay, trying to make sense of joyful or painful memories with humour, and also to reflect the theme of the primary emotional catalyst. During the course of painting, the surface colour, depth and texture grow and develop through chance happenings which I utilise when they parallel my own original intent. This process fascinates me as it also illustrates the chances and controls that are reflected in our own lives. I would like my work to convey a bold atmosphere, a mood, a scent of emotion, all of which can be read in whichever way is chosen; a trigger in itself for the viewer’s own thoughts and memories.”
Gina's paintings are in private collections both nationally and internationally.

Qualifications

Solo Exhibitions and Performance Art

Group Exhibitions and Performance / Public Art

Teaching / Lecturing

Television Production Design

Design