About

 Brad "Tiki-Shark" Parker is a "Tiki-Artist" working in the pop-surrealistic style of the "Low-Brow" Art movement.

Artist's Statement

I'm a "Tiki Artist": a Low-Brow Artist who specializes in Hawaiian Pop-culture. I don't paint historically correct Tikis. I paint "Souvenir Tikis". I paint Tiki's summer holiday reflection. I celebrate the Tiki tourists enjoy on their holiday vacation - found in gift shops & in Tiki Bars. The Tiki I paint is an Urban-Myth; a figment of holiday vacation superstition, like "Mr. Jack-o-Lantern", the "Easter Bunny", or "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer". My mission as a "Tiki-Artist" is to give this fun fictional figure an upgrade, and to help it keep up with our always evolving "Tiki-Pop-Culture".

It felt like the Souvenir Tiki was falling behind & being forgotten, losing quality and respect. I'm here to help polish up this piece of Hawaiiana, dust off the attic cob webs, take it out of the "under a $1 box" at the yard sale, and set Mr. "Souvenir Tiki" on the Throne as ruler of "The Island of Misfit Pop-Culture Icons". Next time you buy a "Souvenir Tiki" and it's really awesome, & cool, & well worth the price tag value - that will mean my artistic mission was a success and I have brought Fine-Art into the Low-Brow Art world of souvenirs. Aloha!

-Brad "Tiki-Shark" Parker

Awards

Publications

Parker has been the subject of many articles in publications, among which are:

  • France's "KUSTOM Magazine". The Art/Fashion magazine celebrating "Rock-a-Billy & Kustom Culture" Life Style. Its "Hawaiian" issue featured a special 16-page pullout of Parker's Art-work.
  • Tiki Magazine spring-08, vol 1, #2
  • Tiki Magazine ( cover story) winter-10, vol 5, #3
  • "Hana Hou! Magazine - (Hawaiian Air Lines in-flight Magazine)" featured Parker in an English language edition in 2016, then because of its popularity, also featured Parker in the Japanese language edition of the next issue that same year. 
  • Best of the West - 30 artists featured in 7th annual Best of the West show
  • Arts & Culture of Maui ( cover story )
  • Honolulu: the Best of Hawaii Issue 
  • The Best of Maui, 2010 { 3-D cover )
  • Waikiki Tiki Art, History, & Photographs 
  • Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art
    • #15 book/show
    • #16 book/show
    • #17 book/show
    • #18 book/show
    • #19 book/show

Shows

  • LA Municipal County Museum System - Manhattan Beach Creative Arts Center “Ocean Dreams”  • Sept 25th 2010
  • LA Luz de Jesus “The Kytch-N-Synch” group show
  • 5 one man art shows at La Luz de Jesus gallery - LA
  • The 25th Anniversary show of La Luz de Jesus Gallery featuring all the most significant artists from the past 25 years. Parker is featured in the 25th anniversary art show book from the same show.

Quotes from the Press and others

"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."
- Honolulu Magazine "The Best Of" Issue

Parker is listed as one of the top 40 most influential "Out-sider Artists" working today in "Surf Graphics" 

- an Art book published by London's KERERO PRESS.

 

"You have not Appropriated the Culture of Hawaii…the Culture of Hawaii has Appropriated you."
- K. Angel Pilago: A Hawaiian Elder (former councilman for the county Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, retired & unofficial councilor to the mayor of the Big Island, and the Hawaiian State Governor.

 

"We (La Luz de Jesus Gallery) are proud to be the sole representative of Brad Parker's art in Southern California.Brad has created a highly rendered visual language that's patently satirical yet wonderfully lurid in it's mythological depth. As a southern California transplant to the active, volcanic Big Island of Hawaii, Brad is unique in his drive to explore the roots of popular Tiki Culture –and the passion is obvious in his work."
~ Matt Kennedy - Curator of La Luz de Jesus Gallery (the World Famous Birth-Place of Low-Brow Art)

 

"Your work is entering a new realm now Brad...Its noir cocktail, the haunting tiki subconscious...You are defining a whole new oeuvre..Its fascinating to witness. Definitely expanding my inner ocular imagination. You are catching the dreamed undreamed." ~Jimmy Vargas - GNOSTIC RACKETEER / CROONOIR

 

"You're not like a normal artist, are you?" ~Lynn Beittel - Visionary Videographer