Mitchell Johnson Archive: July 2022

"Bornholm," 2008 40x70 inches oil/canvas

It is hard to pull off an Elmer Bischoff sort of look these days without appearing quaint, but Mitchell Johnson manages this. He did not in fact study in the Bay Area but at places like Parsons, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, yet the artist is apparently connected enough to the rolling hills of what could be New England that he convincingly presents bird's eye views of the countryside, of farms and wood houses constructed of puzzle pieces of color (one senses an appreciation of Cezanne in Truro). In fact, this is a departure or a tangent for an artist who normally creates abstract work built up of geometric color. What makes this series interesting is the way in which images lace together a brushy, poetic kind of geometry in paint that does not settle in the eye for depictions of nature. Quick, sharp lines and cubes fix farm houses and structures firmly in time. The result is something authentic and felt (especially Bornholm). It does not look like forced or corny gestural realism; there is structure enough that you trust this vision comes from disciplined looking, thought and training (Terence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica).

-ART Scene LA, March, 2008

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