By: Keith Estiler
studio visits
studio visits
Brooklyn-based artist Aaron Johnson has been painting professionally for the past 20 years. Harnessing a keen interest in acrylic paintings and sculptures, Johnson’s creations are largely populated with mythical creatures and otherworldly landscapes. A majority of these visual motifs draw inspiration from the nonconformist, psychedelic pieces of the Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists during the mid-1960s.
To create his signature artworks, Johnson has invented two unique painting methods: “reverse painted acrylic polymer peel” and sock painting. The first technique involves pouring polymer onto two different surfaces with two distinct visuals; combining the layers results in an intricate composition. The second process sees Johnson creating a diverse array of cast resin sculptures and acrylic paintings, using donated socks as his only tool. These works have gone on display at both international shows and permanent collections at prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Fundacion Mehr, and The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.
Recently, Johnson has been experimenting with a more intuitive approach when it comes to creating acrylic works on canvas. “I'm interested in the fluidity of paint and the unpredictable nature of what the paint can do,” he told HYPEBEAST.
We recently paid a visit to Aaron Johnson’s studio in Brooklyn to uncover his new techniques and to check out never-before-exhibited works. Read our full interview below and then head over to Aaron Johnson’s website to view more projects.
Exploring Aaron Johnson's
Otherworldly Artworks
Exploring the otherworldly artworks of the Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor.
Aaron Johnson Studio
Brooklyn, New York
aaronjohnsonart.com
A lot of the ones that aren't detailed are these scary monsters. What's the story behind these subjects?
“Moments of abstraction are just as important in the paintings as the detailed faces.”
aARON JOHNSON
I like the way you asked that question. A lot of the figures are sort of abstractions. A lot of them don't have a face. A lot of them are just a flat color, a paint stain or a splatter of paint and just the way that that soaks into the canvas. Moments of abstraction are just as important in the paintings as the detailed faces. So there's really a back and forth to me in creating a kind of balance between what can the paint do on its own as like an abstract element and where do some of these figures become more rendered or they become sort of more familiar, more human, and more detailed. So that's a mysterious thing for me.
How do you select which subjects to paint?
Sometimes I'll be working in a particular face for quite a while, and then get to a point where I just block it out with one solid color. It seems like all the work that went into sort of trying out different details and different layers just sort of leads to a color decision. Then other times, it's really intentional and specific. Like the way I'm starting these new paintings lately, they usually start with couples that are staring into each other’s eyes, they're having a little moment of romance or kissing.
If these subjects stem from human emotions, what kinds of emotions are you emphasizing now in your works?
How long have you been in this studio?
Now, I'm more interested in showing a different aspect of human relationships. I feel like the world around us is so violent, hateful and aggressive right now, that I want my paintings to be somewhere else. But, I think what's interesting is that those moments of violence and aggression are like ugly monsters, those are always still coming into the paintings. It's like an inevitable aspect of our human experience. There's yin yang, or a balance between those two things.
I've been in this studio for nine years. I first moved to New York back in 1999. I had a cheap apartment in the Lower East Side and I was painting in my bedroom for a number of years and waiting tables and bartending. Before I came to New York, I was a biology major. I graduated college and decided to be an artist. I had people telling me the place to go was New York. 20 years later, here I am.
When did you start showing your work at exhibitions?
I started exhibiting my work in New York in like 2004 at a gallery in Williamsburg, then went onto a couple different galleries in Chelsea where I've worked over the years. I've been showing in Copenhagen and recently Hong Kong.
Tell us about your crazy sock art.
It was kind of a joke at first, and then I just really got into that joke and started looking at it ... posting on Facebook and Instagram like, "Hey, everyone. Send me your old socks." I'd get packages of socks in the mail like every day. I sent out little drawings to everyone in exchange for all the socks that came in. As of last year, I was still making them. At this point, the socks have really moved into sculpture and off the canvas, but it's still very much an option. Like the show I just did in Hong Kong last November, that was a whole series of six new sock paintings.
Describe the process behind your canvas paintings.
The process in these is stretching raw canvas and then having the raw canvas on the floor and wetting the whole entire canvas with a film of water and matte medium. It makes a thin film for the pigments to really disperse and to travel around the canvas. So I'll give myself one long day of having the canvas on the floor. The way I apply the paint is I stick paint brushes on pool cues and just walk around the canvas and sort of draw into the canvas with the paintbrush on a pool cue. So where you see a broad mark of the red that's just really spread like that, that might be just like one fat brush stroke.
Your color palette is so vivid. How do select the tones for each artwork?
First, I like using colors that bleed and give you a real bright luminosity, so it's these bright yellows, oranges, and magenta. Then, I start working those vivid colors into flesh tones. Finally, I incorporate some darks, like the really deep blues or a Payne's gray. There's a lot of balance between dark and light. A balance between the luminosity of color paired with traditional flesh tones.
So Aaron, what informs your work?
I'm very inspired by the works of the Chicago Imagists, Max Ernst, James Ensor. My latest theme is crowd scenes. For these works, canvases are filled with figures on top of figures on top of figures. It's been a mode of working that came in during the last year or so that I've really gotten fascinated with and have really got a lot of momentum with. There's a lot of dynamics between figures. So lately, there's a lot of moments of romantic love, like kissing or couples making out in the bushes. This whole new series of small ones, it's a lot of little intimate moments between couples and a lot of couples sort of interspersed amongst these sort of semi-abstract bushes.
How has your work evolved over the years?
I was doing reverse painted acrylic polymer peel paintings for a long time, and those were hyper-detailed and all super hard-edged and super meticulous. It got to a point with that where I guess around like 2012, I wanted to start doing something more visceral and more painterly and less sort of slick.
Any advice for aspiring artists?
Good advice is work a lot, experiment a lot, and see a lot of art. Find out who the artist is who you really admire and what do you like about their work, what can you bring into the work, but also how can you experiment with materials and make paint do something that's your own language. At least for me, that's always been really important to my practice.
“Good advice is work a lot, experiment a lot, and see a lot of art.”
AARON JOHNSON