Erik Parker was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1969 and currently lives and works in New York.

After attending the University of Texas at Austin and receiving a master of fine art from Purchase College in New York, Parker quickly gained prominence for his participation in the inaugural "Greater New York" exhibition that took place in conjunction with MOMA PS1 in 2000. Ever since, he has held exhibitions in museums including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and The Modern Museum of Art Fort Worth, as well as international galleries throughout the world such as Paul Kasmin gallery, Honor Fraser, and Galeria Javier Lopez.

Parker describes the roots of his works as deriving inspiration from elements of Lowbrow Art conveyed in underground comics such as MAD magazine, satirical illustrations, and that of graffiti. Further, he mentions learning the importance of developing an 'anti-establishment' attitude that is unbound by conventional rules while studying with artist Peter Saul at the University of Texas at Austin. It is no understatement that this very experience had presented a pivotal impact on the course of Parker's subsequent artistic practice. It is to note that Parker's oeuvre had naturally been conceived through an interest towards, and as a result of the influence of Chicago Imagists such as Jim Nutt and Karl Wirsum, as well as the likes of Royal Robertson who respectively were yet to receive acclaim for their works at the time, however had later come to be reevaluated and currently recognized as representative figures of the American art scene.

Parker's paintings predominantly consist of four major series that he has continued to develop throughout the course of his career. "MAPS," which at a glance seemingly embodies the presence and ethos of outsider art, brings together aggregated clusters of texts that are roughly yet correlatively arranged and shaped into various entities. "HEADS" is a series of portraits that symbolically represent the mappings of the artist's own brain while simultaneously delving into the depths of his mind and streams of thought. "Hieroglyphics" and "STILL LIFES" also capture much of Parker's characteristically graphic style, the former showcasing pictogram-like images of monsters, symbols, and forms reminiscent of words –a contemporary Rosetta Stone of sorts, with the latter depicting the artist's unique interpretation of classic still-life arrangements of plants and landscapes. Through such thematic concerns, Parker serves to graphically convey the state of politics, society and economic demographics that permeate out current world through his unique compositions that swell and seethe with elements of pop culture, music, and history.

Erik Parker於1969年出生在德國斯圖加特，目前居住和工作在紐約。

在德州大學奧斯汀分校學習並獲得紐約普查學院的美術碩士學位後，Parker 在2000年因參加由MOMA PS1聯合舉辦的首屆「更好的紐約」展覽而迅速嶄露頭角。自此，他在包括阿爾德里奇當代藝術博物館和沃斯堡現代藝術博物館在內的各個國際博物館舉辦了展覽，並在全球各地的國際畫廊展出，其中包括保羅·卡斯敏畫廊、霍諾·弗雷澤畫廊和哈維爾·洛佩斯畫廊等等。

據藝術家自稱，他的創作源泉是受到了低俗藝術元素的啟發，這些元素透過地下漫畫（如《MAD》雜誌）、諷刺插圖和塗鴉等形式傳達。此外，他提到在德州大學奧斯汀分校與藝術家Peter Saul學習時，了解到發展一種不受傳統規則束縛的「反體制」態度的重要性。毫不誇張地說，這段經歷對Parker後來的藝術實踐產生了深遠的影響。值得注意的是，Parker的作品受到芝加哥形象派藝術家，如Jim Nutt、Karl Wirsum，以及當時尚未獲得藝壇認可的Royal Robertson等人的啟發，後來這些藝術家也被後人重新評估並被視為美國藝術界的代表性人物。

Parker的繪畫作品主要由四個主要系列組成，而他也在職業生涯中不斷發展這些系列。「地圖（MAPS）」乍看之下似乎體現了外部藝術的存在和精神，匯集了粗略但相關排列的文本聚集體，形成各種實體；「頭部（HEADS）」是一個象徵性地代表藝術家自己大腦映射的肖像系列，同時深入探討他的內心和思想；「象形文字（Hieroglyphics）」和「靜物（STILL LIFES）」捕捉了Parker特有的圖形風格，前者展示了類似圖標的怪物、符號和形式，令人聯想到文字 —— 某種現代的羅塞塔石，而後者則描繪了藝術家對經典靜物、植物和風景佈置的獨特詮釋。透過這些主題，Parker 透過其獨特的構圖，生動地傳達了滲透我們當今世界的政治、社會和經濟人口統計狀態，作品中充滿了流行文化、音樂和歷史的元素。