Untitled (Painting of a Man Leaving in Boat)

2010 - Painting (Painting)

Chris Johanson

location: Los Angeles, California
year born: 1968
gender: male
nationality: American
home town: San Jose, California

Chris Johanson’s Untitled (Painting of a Man Leaving in Boat) (2010) pictures a canoe drifting toward an off-kilter horizon line, which demarcates the cobalt sea from the cerulean sky. An orange-haired figure, oar positioned in mid-stroke, looks ahead—whether toward an edge or an infinite expanse, it is impossible to tell. Echoing a trope that recurs in Greek epic poetry, transcendental painting, and current-day reality television, the character is alone with nature. We witness—and likely empathize with—his voyage.


The prolific Chris Johanson produces paintings, zines, installations, and sculptures that are notable for their earnest, almost childlike abstraction. His work delves unabashedly into the emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of human nature, tracking points of commonality and difference using simple shapes and lines as well as an unflagging sense of magnanimous humor.


Colors:



Untitled
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Untitled (Colors) and Untitled (Ghost)
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Alicia McCarthy

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Studio Construct 51
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Barbara Kasten

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Untitled (The way in is the way out)
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Alicia McCarthy

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A painting reminiscent of a certain “naive primitivism,” Untitled (the way in is the way out) is representative of McCarthy’s work...

Radical Hospitality
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Tarantism
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Joachim Koester

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Excerpt (Sealed) (Brown)
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Domes, #1
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Judy Chicago

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Tapitapultas
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Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker

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Paper Tigers…from a whisper to a scream
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Juan Capistran

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The 10 $1 bills that make up From a Whisper to a Scream (2012) read like instructions in origami...

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