Aaron Johnson’s work presents a fluid approach to painting that harnesses unpredictable washes of color into raw canvas. The paintings vibrate with ethereal figures that dissolve into hazes of disembodied color, juicy luminosity, and radiant blurs. His spiritlike figures are in turns comical, grotesque, angelic, and ghostly. Romantic moments reveal embracing, starry-eyed lovers who melt into each other, combine energies, and fuse into a psychedelic nonduality. The dreamy landscapes seem to suggest life on another planet, or in another dimension, abundant with strange magic. In his unique process, working on the floor with washes of flowing paint, Johnson’s technique allows figures to emerge, dissolve, and morph, as the artist orchestrates in a mode of improvisation. There is a balance struck in these works between a wild freedom and a tight precision. His technique pays reverence to the abstract expressionism of Color Field painting, in combination with an eccentric mode of figuration. The works call on a range of influences from Helen Frankenthaler and Rothko on one end of the spectrum to the Hairy Who and James Ensor on the other, while exploring a curiosity into astrophysics and mysticism. These are intuitive paintings that harness the alchemy of paint as a metaphysical potion for an enigmatic visual experience. Aaron Johnson lives and works in Brooklyn, and holds an MFA from Hunter College, NYC, 2005. His work is in permanent collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles; and Coleccion Solo, Madrid.
His work has been included in museum exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, Mass MoCA, and The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. His work has been exhibited at galleries internationally, including Almine Rech, Brussels; Gana Art, Seoul; Ross + Kramer Gallery, NY; Stux Gallery, NY; Marlborough Gallery, NY; Over The Influence, LA; AishoNanzuka, Hong Kong; Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen; and Gallery Brandstrup, Oslo. He is the recipient of awards including The MacDowell Colony Fellowship, The Yaddo residency, and The Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program residency. Johnson’s work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Village Voice, Art News, and ArtForum, and Vice.
Aaron Johnson