Jackie K. Johnson
Portland artist, Jackie Johnson boldly paints totemic forms with vibrant colors. The shapes, some triangular and egg shaped, tree or brick-like, are informed by architecture, the figure, and nature. Johnson explores ideas of perception seeking out character and metaphor through the reinvention of form. Here her reinterpretations become iconic and primal, as the totemic forms appear to shift and jostle about the canvas. Enigmatic, they are left to the viewer’s own interpretation. In this exhibition Johnson includes a selection of both large and small oil paintings on canvas and wood panel.
A native of Oregon and a graduate of the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Jackie Johnson made New York City her home from 1978 to 1993 where she worked and exhibited her paintings. She has been included in a number of gallery and museum invitationals such as the Blair Art Museum and the Johnstown Art Museum in Pennsylvania, the Academy of Art in Easton, Maryland, the Ward Nasse Gallery, and 55 Mercer Street Gallery in New York. Jackie Johnson currently resides in Portland.