Chris Johanson

‘It is a very loud time right now. I am putting peaceful meditative intention into the work. Not to say that they are free of anxiety, anger and critical thoughts as I spend months to years making them. I do try and get a resonating quality of more loving than hating. That is my goal. These pieces are autobiographical documents of time spent. The politics, the walks in the neighbourhood with my dog, the mental health, the co-existence with what is around now is all in the pieces because to be is to be in conversation with everything.

Quite some time ago Michael Rooks curated an exhibit of H.C. Westermann that had a companion show of fans of his work that I was in with Ed Ruscha. We both wrote appreciation essays for the catalogue. Anyway, a few months later Eddy Ruscha said his father wanted to get ahold of me to ask about something. So, I was very happy to get a call asking me if I would like to do a print at Ed And Pat Hamilton’s print studio in Venice Beach. I, of course, said yes and time and space is a trippy thing. And finally, after years of almost doing it, it’s finally happened. I am so happy to have had this experience with them and Tyler Ferreira master printer and Jeff Cairns.’

– Chris Johanson

Chris Johanson presents a new suite of paintings across the Bricks Space. Their limited means – the canvases are former painter and decorator drop cloth and the stretcher bars are composed from recycled wood – belies their magical compositions. His gardens of swirling shapes and harmonious colour, often incorporating ordinary people, suggest that everything is interconnected, related and co-dependent. This chimes with his use of throwaway materials – showing an awareness of the impact of his own actions on the world at large.

Across time, Johanson has built up a variety of methods in his painting and individual pieces can often take several months or years to finish, allowing his thoughts to gestate and develop. The paintings use and follow the artist’s body, the arc of the wrist and arm are found in the recurring liquid forms and balanced shapes of his compositions. In his own words, the paintings offer ‘pieces of what life is made of’. They have a peaceful and positive quality, and the emergence of figures amid the sections of colour speaks to a desire for harmony between humans and the environment.