Remember the '90s at York art gallery
If you go
The Parliament Gallery & Tea Bar is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
It is located at 116 E. King St., York.
The "As If" show is set to run through June.
Some of the '90s references on The Parliament's walls are direct.
There is an acrylic painting of Daria, the sarcastic main character of an animated MTV show, and a lithograph print of Kramer from "Seinfeld."
A digital print recreates a scene from "Jurassic Park" featuring a girl and a velociraptor. The artist added her own twist with the description "Love At First Sight."
But other connections to the decade of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Gangsta's Paradise" and "...Baby One More Time" are less obvious.
Jaime Derringer is one of the artists featured in The Parliament's "As If" 1990s art revival show.
In her artist statement, the 36-year-old from San Diego said the '90s were never a direct influence for her, but since she spent most of her youth and teenage years in that decade, "Saved by the Bell"-esque graphics and MC Hammer pants "were somehow etched into my subconscious."
Cooper Millholland, gallery director for The Parliament, said she had been following Derringer's work for a while, and she thought her color schemes and patterns would fit in well with the show.
Chris Riggs, who is based out of New York City and Miami, has two paintings in the show: One with "Happy" written in large letters many times and over each other. Another has the word "love" written many times and a gold-painted Barbie doll attached to it.
In his artist statement, he said that graffiti style was "booming" all over New York City in the 1990s. Growing up, he said he painted anywhere he could, including abandoned buildings.
He said it seems weird, like something from "The Twilight Zone," to see street art style be more accepted now.
"One day you're painting on a dirty train tunnel wall. Twenty years later, there's people hanging it in their mansions," Riggs said in a phone interview.
Nastassja Swift, 22, said her work typically deals with identity and race, and she wanted to find a way to incorporate that into the 1990s pieces. She painted black characters from kids cartoons, "Rugrats," "Hey Arnold!" and "Recess," and imagined how they would react to the August shooting death of Missouri teenager Michael Brown by a police officer.
"I wanted to translate that reality into an imaginary setting," Swift said.
In one of the acrylic paintings, Gerald from "Hey Arnold!" holds up a sign that says "Am I Next?" In another, Susie from "Rugrats" holds a bullhorn in one hand and her other arm is raised in the air.
Derringer, the San Diego artist, said in her artist statement that growing up, she was interested in rap music, techno and raves, "alternative" music and style, skateboarding culture, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and The Cure.
"I was a typical 90s youth going through phases and states of 'seeking identity,'" she said.
She said she went through those same awkward stages in the art world when she started there. When she looks at her work now, she said she sees the '80s, '90s, current trends and the future.
"I've created a world for myself through my art that feels like a historical record of my life," she said.
'90s nostalgia
"The '90s is really trending right now," said Cooper Millholland, 24, gallery director for The Parliament.
Nostalgia for that decade has been the subject of a National Geographic Channel three-part documentary and many BuzzFeed articles, such as "How 'Clarissa Explains It All' Helped Change Television" and "24 Dreams All '90s Girls Had That Never Came True."
A "Vanity Fair" article from last year described the trend and how nostalgia itself has changed over time.
Also of interest
Here are more than 100 things to do every day of summer in and around York County
Check out upcoming events in southcentral Pennsylvania
32 Amazing Tattoos That Will Make You Nostalgic For The '90s.
Read what "Vanity Fair" had to say about 90s nostalgia last year.