Elizabeth Johnson
“I am interested in how my subconscious influences my art. Because I work with distorted but recognizable images, seeking the ‘right’ color, image, or texture, I want the mix of visual information to simultaneously hang together and pull apart to emphasize transitions. When it works, a painting reminds me of dream space, where events and objects are always changing...”
––Elizabeth Johnson
Gross McCleaf is pleased to present Elizabeth Johnson’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, The Cost of Sleep. This collection showcases a series of oil paintings that blend vivid imagery and robust earth tones into dynamic, swirling compositions. Recognizable objects meld into painterly brushstrokes, only to reemerge as novel, unexpected pictorial elements.
Johnson’s painting process begins by collecting fragments of print media images and patterns. Responding intuitively to these visual sources, she categorizes them as either landscape or figurative imagery, manipulating chosen bits in Photoshop, warping and distorting them into curved shapes. The resulting digital image is printed out and reserved as a source of future inspiration.
Image Right: Wallpaper In Cemetery, 18″ x 24″, Oil On Canvas
Selcouth, 16″ x 20″, Oil On Canvas
In the studio, Johnson mixes a palette of mostly naturalistic colors that are reminiscent of weather, seasons, and a childhood spent on a farm. Mixing varieties of hue, value, and saturation that only oil paint can provide, she has learned that “all colors are useful, the ugliest especially." Pre-preparing images and media allows Johnson to devote her full attention to selecting subjects to paint. She works by trial and error, trying out possible digital images, frequently turning her canvases, and destroying most of what she produces. Permitting drifts of connection and metaphors that might bridge landscape and figural elements within her work, she deliberately avoids definitive narrative. She asserts, “If I feel a story is about to coalesce, I undo what I did and try something else."
For Johnson, this activity of deconstruction and reconstruction relates to the free-association process that occurs while dreaming. She prefers not knowing where a painting might lead and allowing stories or relationships to unfold relative to the viewer’s own inclination or perception. Within her pieces lie unique cues, inviting threads waiting to be tugged, an unraveling experience that transcends direction and time.
Elizabeth Johnson is an oil painter, art writer, and guest curator based in Easton, Pennsylvania. After receiving her B.A. in Fine Arts from Bard College, Johnson moved to San Francisco where she lived, worked, and exhibited until 2010. Since returning to the Northeast, she has exhibited with the Allentown Art Museum, in Allentown, Pennsylvania; The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, in Philadelphia; at Bowery Gallery in New York; Trestle Gallery, in Brooklyn; and at Marquee Projects, on Long Island. She has been a guest curator at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Soft Machine Gallery, Cedar Crest College, Marquee Projects, and Lafayette College, among others. Her writing has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, Theartblog.org, Deliciousline.org, Figure/Ground.org, and Paintersonpaintings.com.
Unauthored, 28″ x 22″, Oil On Canvas
~ Exhibition Preview ~
March 7 - 30, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 9, 1 - 4 pm
