Transmission

LSS NYC

“Transmission”

2026 May 13 to June 21

Long Story Short NYC presents Transmission, featuring works by Philip Akkerman and Erik Parker, on view May 13 – June 21, 2026 at 52 Henry Street, New York.

Transmission brings together Philip Akkerman’s decades-long commitment to self-portraiture with Erik Parker’s vivid, screen-based compositions—two distinct approaches to painting that explore how images are constructed, revisited, and experienced, whether through the enigma of the self or the mediation of contemporary visual culture.

For over four decades, Philip Akkerman has devoted his practice entirely to the self-portrait. The works on view—No. 22 (2022), No. 54 (2013), and No. 165 (2017), among others—shift in style and handling while holding to a single subject. Executed in tempera and oil on wooden panel, their surfaces carry a distinct material presence: matte passages sit beside more luminous layers, with tones ranging from muted, earthen palettes to sharper moments of color. The face remains constant but never fixed. It tightens, loosens, dissolves, and reappears—at times built up through careful layering, at others breaking down into thinner, more immediate marks. What accumulates is not likeness, but variation—an image continuously reworked over time.

Parker builds his images through structure as much as subject. In works such as Earth Ruler (2026), Conquer (2026), Fellowship (2026), and Open Gate (2026), acrylic on canvas, the compositions are anchored by the outlines of televisions, consoles, and handheld screens. Within them, saturated landscapes emerge—electric blues, acid greens, and heat-soaked pinks describing skies, water, and dense, stylized vegetation. The color is heightened and deliberate, pushing the image toward something closer to a signal than a scene. These are contained worlds: portable, framed, and slightly out of reach, with the image consistently presented through a screen. This body of work marks a shift in scale, with Parker working at a more intimate size, bringing a greater sense of focus and immediacy to each composition.

Seen together, the works begin to align through difference. Akkerman returns to the same image, allowing it to shift over time, while Parker presents his compositions through the structure of a screen. In both, painting operates as a form of transmission, carrying something forward while altering it in the process. The dialogue between them unfolds through contrast, repetition, and subtle variation.

Philip Akkerman (b. 1957, Netherlands) has produced more than 5,000 self-portraits over the course of his career and has exhibited internationally. His work is defined by its conceptual rigor and technical range, drawing from art historical traditions while continuously reworking them through the singular constraint of the self-portrait. His recent solo exhibitions include Derek Eller Gallery, New York (2022), and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles (2024), and in 2026 he was named Stadstekenaar of The Hague.

Erik Parker (b. 1968, Germany) lives and works in New York. His work is included in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Known for his bold, graphic compositions and signature color palette, Parker’s paintings synthesize influences from subculture, music, and art history into a visual language that is both immediate and highly constructed. He has exhibited widely, including at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, De Appel, Amsterdam, CAC Málaga, and Mary Boone Gallery, New York, as well as MoMA PS1’s Greater New York.