Parker Ito doesnât believe in net artists. âIâm not an Internet artist,â Ito said. âIâm just a hipster on the Internet who makes art.â Clearly, the 26-year old Los Angeles-based contemporary doesnât like to think of his art as merely a product of his environment.
Ito is difficult to define. Thereâs Parker Ito the professional, a self-described YIBA (Young Internet-Based Artist) who has achieved wide success and distinction in the art world for his paintings and exhibition projects that explore how the Internet affects traditional art objects. Thereâs Parker Ito the Internet persona, a genuine and irreverently funny character who can out-wear Hamish Bowles in a dandy pant suit and tweets whatever the fuck is on his mind. And of course, Parker Cheeto the Net Artist, an enigmatic alter ego symbolic of Itoâs evolution as an artist.
At the core of these dimensions is a dynamic play between art, persona, and the power of self representation online â ideas that just as much characterize the essence of his conceptual practice as they do mystify it.
