Ben Johnson
dal 7/5/2014 al 6/6/2014
Segnalato da
7/5/2014
Ben Johnson
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
Time Past Time Present. The artist features six new intricate paintings of half real, half imagined interiors.
“I use the outside world as inspiration and particular places as objects of meditation and reflection.”
– Ben Johnson
For his second exhibition at Alan Cristea Gallery, Ben Johnson will present six new intricate paintings
of half real, half imagined interiors.
Johnson’s work has been described by Edward Lucie-Smith as a paradox in that it is both real and
abstract, “the expression of a finely tuned sense of geometrical order”. Indeed, it is the geometrical
precision of Johnson’s work that creates the illusion of complex, three-dimensional space within his
canvases. He draws the viewer into his own, reconstructed vision of reality: the viewer inhabits not
the building itself but Johnson’s interpretation of it.
Moving away from his more pristine, dreamlike works which depicted modern architectural spaces,
in this set of paintings Johnson confronts the physical scars embedded in his chosen spaces. The
artist is intrigued by the notion that layers of the past can be left written on interior architecture; the
energy of a place cannot be changed by decoration.
Johnson’s Museum Rooms series (2011-2014) depicts the interior of the Neues Museum,
Berlin, which was significantly damaged during World War II, and left as a derelict bombsite until
David Chipperfield and Julian Harrap’s painstaking restoration work in 2003. The damage inflicted on
the building by war is still partially visible today, and is reflected in Johnson’s paintings which
document the museum before and after the works. A homely domestic Mexican interior (now the
Museo Regional de la Revolución) painted by Johnson belies a tragic past not immediately
noticeable; only upon closer inspection do the bullet holes embedded in the brightly-coloured
walls become apparent.
About the artist
Ben Johnson was born in 1946 in Llandudno, Wales. He studied at the Royal College of Art, London
and lives and works in London. He has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States and his
work is held in many public collections including the Tate, the V&A and the British Museum in
London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam.
Ben Johnson’s work is currently part of a travelling exhibition "Photorealism" at the Birmingham
Museum & Art Gallery (30 November 2013 – 30 March 2014). The exhibition broke visitor records at
its previous location, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. The next venue will be the Museo
de Bellas Artes, Bilbao. He exhibited at the National Gallery, London, 2010 where he set up his studio
in Gallery I to complete a special work representing the view from the roof of the National Gallery
and showing the strong compositional relationship with Canaletto's "The Stonemason's Yard."
Johnson completed a similar cityscape of Liverpool in 2008 at the Walker Art Gallery which attracted
over 200,000 visitors. It is now in the collection of Liverpool Museums.
He held his first solo show at the Alan Cristea Gallery in November 2010.
Image: Ben Johnson, Room of the Niobids II, 2013, Courtesy the artist and Alan Cristea Gallery
For press information and images please contact:
Kara Reaney and Rachel Guthrie at Pelham Communications
Tel: +44 20 8969 3959
Email: kara@pelhamcommunications.com and rachel@pelhamcommunications.com
PRIVATE VIEW: 6.00 - 7.30pm, Thursday 8 May 2014
Alan Cristea Gallery
34 Cork Street, London W1
10am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm Sat
Free