Sunday Morning Coming Down
“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Mindy Solomon Gallery is pleased to present Sunday Morning Coming Down. Ezra Johnson’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. In this group of new paintings, Johnson has been inspired by what he calls the “tropical noir” atmosphere of Tampa, engaging with objects, spaces and scenes that are built up with many layers of oil paint, applied in sheets of color often showing the residue of earlier layers.
While these paintings depict places and objects they are constructed from thoughts, memory and drawings. Johnson intentionally avoids photographic sources to allow the personal and formal needs of the painting to combine. Johnson obscures and exposes layers from previous stages of the painting. Guided by the process of painting itself and open to the possibility of changing course or following another thread at any moment. His subjects need not explain themselves or why they are there, they emerge from a process of painterly discovery with no fixed resolution apparent at the beginning.
With a nod to the banality of the absurd, Johnson focuses on the daily. Bongs, barges, discarded trash and backyard gatherings are all fodder for painterly interpretation. His seemingly loose articulation of mark making is a deeply considered and well-honed language. For the lover of paint this is a triple treat, fantastic brush work coupled with a nuanced color palette that surprises with unconventional subject matter. Continuing to toil in the magic of creativity, Johnson displays a sense of confidence and saunter that is timeless and relatable.
We are excited to showcase his current body of work and visit the meanderings of his painting narrative.
Ezra Johnson is a painter based in Tampa Florida. Born in 1975 in Wenatchee, Washington. He received an MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2006 and a BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2000. Johnson’s painting practice often expands into animation and sculpture.
Johnson has exhibited at many prestigious museums such as the Fundación AMMA in Mexico City, 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 regularly. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida.
About Ezra Johnson
Ezra Johnson is a painter based in Tampa Florida. Born in 1975 in Wenatchee, Washington. He received an MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2006 and a BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2000. Johnson’s painting practice often expands into animation and sculpture.
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. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida.
