OHT Gallery Boston

Previous Exhibits

Fun Everyday

Heidi Johnson

February 23 - April 1, 2006
Reception: Friday, March 3, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

O·H+T gallery is pleased to present Fun Everyday, an exhibition of new paintings by Heidi Johnson. Johnson's quirky aesthetic is evident is these rich, colorful paintings, as she combines images of fish, Santas, birds, household appliances and Volkswagens with joyful abandon.

Caught between her love of traditional painting and her fascination with the cultural kitsch of everyday life, Johnson's influences include Rube Goldberg, Krazy Kat, and Tintoretto. Her densely-packed, layered imagery provides the viewer with an experience similar to going shopping on Canal Street. Associations that seem random make sense in light of what Johnson refers to as our "Culture of Overwhelm." In Fishy Santa a traditional red and green Christmas palette prevails, though Santa, snowman, and toys share the snowy landscape with a slithery eel and swimming tropical fish... underwater.

Santa appears again in Kitchen Sink. The scene is more threatening here featuring sharks, skeletons, old tires, chains, and a spiked mace, along with Santa who seems to be tangled in the tentacles of an anemone. The painting's composition is anchored by a boxy sink containing what appears to be a stark, miniature room. Johnson explains by saying, "In my work, I seek to expand the associative meaning of the images... I desire to make paintings about everything at once."

The power of Johnson's maverick imagery is enhanced by the strength of her painting. Layered in rich swathes and glazes, it is vivid and animated. She pays tribute to the great Italian and Dutch painters, but there is a raw immediacy in her work that suggests hand-painted signs and cheesy advertising. Johnson sums up her aims when she asks, "How does one combine the hilarity and poignancy of everyday experience with the stuffy traditional art form capable of great beauty?"

Heidi Johnson lives and works in New York City. She has attended Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where she was a Traveling Scholar. Her work has been exhibited in New York at Michael Steinberg Fine Arts and at the Jane Dearing Gallery in London. Johnson was awarded the prestigious Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Studio Grant for emerging artists. This is her second one-person exhibition at O·H+T gallery.