Petie Parker didn’t set out to be a painter. Yet, five years after picking up a brush during the pandemic, he’s showing new work this summer as part of ZuCot Gallery’s “Palette Cleanse,” a show the gallery describes as a seasonal stretch between its major exhibitions, when the space is open for art collectors and the art-curious alike.
Parker, born Kareem Thompson, grew up in South Fulton County playing football. He later majored in computer science in college and worked for years as a web designer. The 2020 lockdown pushed him toward painting, and he was organizing an art exhibit as manager of Peters Street Station, when his boss and mentor, artist and entrepreneur Miya Bailey told him, “You should put your piece in the show too.”
Parker works exclusively in achromatic color. Black, to be exact, in subtle shifts in tone and finish. He calls the practice “Blackgrounds,” and the subjects he renders range from childhood memories to reimagined historical scenes and cloudscapes.
Here, Parker shares what drew him to find worlds in the absence of light and what the ordinary carries that the extraordinary can’t.
Why work in black?
“If you put black next to any other color, it’ll always be the darkest color. But when you put different blacks together, they create shades and values of their own. I love that. … I always knew I wanted to place my portraits on a background painted entirely in black. But once I finally did it, I felt it would be a tragedy to cover those backgrounds. I realized they could stand on their own.”
Your work feels more narrative and environmental than centered on a single subject. Is that deliberate?
“Absolutely. I love the idea of world-building, and for me, the scene is the most essential part of the story. The environment alone can carry the weight of the storytelling. So I try to compose my paintings the way a filmmaker composes a scene because if the composition is powerful enough, the setting can become the main character.”
What inspired your 2026 pieces?
“For the most part, nostalgia. I’ve come to realize that my collectors really appreciate and relate to the way I tell stories about moments from our younger years.”
One of your newer pieces incorporates handwritten text alongside architectural detail. What does language add that image alone can’t?
“I don’t really like using sentences or long passages of text in my work, because I don’t think of myself as particularly deep or poetic with words. But when it comes to enhancing or balancing the overall composition, I look at language as just another design element within the painting. It becomes part of the visual experience rather than something that explains it.”
You came to painting during the pandemic. How has your relationship to the craft changed five years in?
“Lately, it’s been just as much about learning the business as it has been about making the art. Painting is still therapy for me, but it’s no longer a hobby. This is what I do full-time.”
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Your scenes feel deliberately ordinary. What are you saying about Black everyday life by giving it this kind of formal attention?
“Our culture is fascinating. The rest of the world knows that, and I’m just as fascinated by it as they are. I think we often celebrate the extraordinary moments, but it’s the ordinary ones that shape who we become. Those everyday moments are rarely seen in a poetic light, and that’s what I want my work to do.”
A special curated presentation of Parker’s and other artists’ works happens 12–6 p.m., July 11, at ZucCot Gallery.
