Erik Parker (b. 1968) is renowned for his intricately detailed and vibrantly chaotic canvases, characterized by their bright colors and intense saturation. His work features distorted shapes and surreal forms, drawing inspiration from pop culture elements such as comic books, hip hop, street graffiti, and cartoons. Parker's work reimagines traditional portraiture and still-life genres, pulling from various aspects of American subculture, including psychedelia, underground comics, the Chicago Imagists, hip hop, and heavy metal, as well as the styles of artists such as, Picasso, Francis Bacon, and Roy Lichtenstein. Parker was born in Stuttgart, Germany but grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He studied at the University of Texas at Austin and later earned a Master of Fine Arts from Purchase College. He now lives and works in New York.

Parker's work has been showcased at notable venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Yale University Art Gallery, RISD Museum of Art, and the Hammer Museum, and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.