In a devastatingly beautiful new series of paintings, Johnson continues to negotiate a balance between familiar contemporary content and a combination of art historical styles, here via a group of canvases that share the landscape format and a somber tone.
Chorus
Winkleman Gallery is extremely pleased to present Chorus, our third solo exhibition
by New York artist Christopher Lowry Johnson. In a devastatingly beautiful new
series of paintings, Johnson continues to negotiate a balance between familiar
contemporary content and a combination of art historical styles, here via a group of
canvases that share the landscape format and a somber tone. Essentially depopulated
scenes (such as decorated pines and carved mountain sides) insinuate a human
presence in the natural world, a deliberate summoning of the Romantic Movement
wherein human longing is irrevocably analogous to the vast potentialities of Nature.
As suggested by the title Chorus, these paintings emphasize harmony achieved through
the use of repetition, culling from a diverse array of sources ranging from Islamic
tile work and Theosophical Society telepaths to Minimalism and fractal geometry.
While the works in the exhibition are imbedded in order, their painterly, agitated
surfaces impose a tension that reflects how even as the color is cool the underlying
themes are much darker. The basis of the series, as in Johnson's last exhibition, is
a response to our troubling times. Formations of pine trees adorned with twinkling
lights become silent personifications of soldiers. The weighed down branches are an
aggregation of weather and the burden of time. The chiseled appearances of the
presidents on Mt. Rushmore are disembodied and silly as well as grim reminders of
loss. Hints of snow capped mountain ranges, ice, and foamy pools are evocations of
real or imagined tragedies like Hurricane Katrina or Moby Dick.
Opening Reception: Friday, March 23, 6-8 PM
Winkleman Gallery
637 West 27th Street (Ground Floor) - New York
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm