Johnson is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida. Johnson is represented by Freight + Volume Gallery in New York and Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami. Johnson has exhibited at many prestigious museums such as the Nerman Museum of Art in Kansas, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Site Santa Fe Biennial, the ICA in Philadelphia, as well as gallery exhibitions, nationally and internationally. For Johnson, one of the most exciting aspects of animation is its ability to hold together otherwise disparate approaches and ideas within one continuous artwork. The medium of animation showcases Johnson’s exploration of paint as a material that moves and flows with different kinds of viscosity. The animations both celebrate and complicate traditional languages of oil painting. This exhibition showcases Johnson’s work with animation over the course of more than 15 years.

For the artist, Johnson said this contrast becomes analogous to questions of where reality and subjectivity start and end in the process of creating painterly worlds. According to Johnson, the contrast between inside and outside is a device used in several animations on exhibit as well. Two large paintings included in the exhibit (“Morning” and “Night”) include the interiors of a room looking out into a garden at different times of day. His work with stop frame animation are multi-media narratives that combine paint, canvas, paper, advertising, and photography, as well as sculptural objects. Johnson’s oil paintings mine traditional genres such as still life, interior and landscape as a basis for painterly investigations of color and surface. Patrons will gain insight on Johnson’s expansive art practice and his playful, energetic approach to serious subject matter. and will showcase Johnson’s experimentation with color, form and surface.

The mixed media exhibit opens with a reception on Thursday, February 16 at 5:00 p.m. Florida School of the Arts presents paintings and animations by Tampa-based artist Ezra Johnson.

Still Life by A.M. Johnson