BRETT ALLEN JOHNSON “SOUTHWESTERN PASSAGE”
OCTOBER 2021 - ALL WORKS TO BE SOLD BY fixed price DRAW OCTOBER 16, 2021
Questions: info@MaxwellAlexanderGallery.com or 213-275-1060
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“High Above The Rio” 31” x 50” Oil
(SOLD)
“Earlier this year, after watching my daughter's dance recital, I kept thinking about this idea of using a curtain to obscure part of a landscape, what wasn't sure how to do it. Late one night, laying in bed, I imagined the wings of a great bird rising up to take flight, and I could see instantly what I wanted to do. I stretched a big canvas in the morning and started right away. I think in images first, and I didn't know what it meant to me then, but I have some ideas now. I felt strongly about the image, and I'm really proud to see it finished and hanging in such a great place.” - Brett Allen Johnson
“The Hidden Forest” 20” x 16” Oil
(SOLD)
“A Wild Land” 38” x 40” Oil
(SOLD)
“Southwestern Passage” 15” x 30” Oil
(SOLD)
“Desert Rainbow” 16” x 16” Oil
(SOLD)
“Evening Cliffs, Glen Canyon” 12” x 12” Oil
(SOLD)
“Canyon Clouds” 40” x 40” Oil
(SOLD)
“Painted Hills” 26” x 50” Oil
(SOLD)
“Westward, Elko County” 24” x 34” Oil
(SOLD)
“High Mountains of Taos” 18” x 34” Oil
(SOLD)
“Pueblo Chapel, Taos” 28” x 24” Oil
(SOLD)
“Paradise Valley” 26” x 22” Oil
(SOLD)
“Enter Nevada” 22” x 26” Oil
(SOLD)
“Ladders, Taos Pueblo” 12” x 12” Oil
(SOLD)
“Buck Moon” 20” x 16” Oil
(SOLD)
Brett Allen Johnson’s first fascination with the West stemmed from childhood visits to northern Arizona to visit family in Sedona. These trips would take the Johnson family from Northern Utah through iconic western landscapes like Mt. Carmel, Kanab, Page, and Vermilion cliffs. Johnson’s Grandmother, a watercolorist, would take her grandkids on outdoor adventures to explore and paint scenes of the surrounding landscape. These early experiences would ultimately lead to the artist's journey into recreating the desert on his own canvases.
Johnson, a Utah native, often travels throughout the Southwest for inspiration. Hence the title for his latest and largest solo exhibition, “Southwestern Passage,” opening on October 9, 2021. All 15 paintings in Southwestern Passage will be sold by draw box on October 16th. We expect to have the full preview available on our website by the middle of next week.
Johnson’s previous exhibition in 2020 was a sold out event, even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. And we are happy to announce that this year at the 2021 Eiteljorg Museum’s Quest for the West exhibition, Johnson was awarded the prestigious Victor Higgins award for best body of work. Earlier this year the artist also showed for the first time at the Masters of the American West exhibition at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles.
For Johnson’s latest exhibition, Southwestern Passage, some figures do appear in paintings, but the main focus here is the landscape of the Southwest. Johnson continues to evolve and experiment with his painting style and subject matter. He expressed that he doesn’t want to get stuck painting the same thing -- this is evident in one of the largest works in the exhibition titled, “High Above the Rio” Oil 31”x50.” Intrigued by the curtain at this daughter’s dance recital, Johnson thought of the idea to partially cover the landscape with a Southwestern staple, a Native weaving.
“I like to create a dynamic tension between the foreground and the background, getting a peek through to what’s in the distance.” After sitting with the completed painting for some time Johnson came to a realization that “It was a personal expression of my feeling that the intimate relationship to the land of the west was lost when settlers filled it, that for modern man, a special part of it will forever remain unknowable, behind the curtain.”
While the artist credits the greats like E.L Blumenschein and Victor Higgins, he states that Dixon gave him a bit of a roadmap to make it possible to portray the feelings he loved in a painting. And now Johnson has begun the process of departing from those before him to carve his own path.
Perhaps some of the most recognizable paintings by Johnson are those of various churches that can be found throughout New Mexico, see “High Mountains of Taos.” “Paradise Valley '' shows off the artist's ability to abstract nature with a simplified and simultaneously exaggerated landscape. “Painted Hills” and “Desert Rainbow” show the vast and varied colors caused by mineral deposits in nature over hundreds or even thousands of years.
The approach of all the works stem from a modern aesthetic. This style of simplification is in direct contrast to what the Western genre saw in the 80s and 90s, but highlights have always been there -- Mell, Schenck, Moyers, and more recently, Hagege. The art world craves an artist that paints what they see, not necessarily what you would see. We celebrate artists who create, rather than copy a photo. In Southwestern Passage, Johnson is continuing his journey of painting what he feels and sees in his mind’s eye. Abstraction in nature is as natural as the sand in the desert, though very few are able to capture the feeling of nature like Johnson does.
For questions or inquiries, please contact us at info@MaxwellAlexanderGallery.com
