I am Human, Abstract Foil, No Humans IV
2004 - Painting (Painting)
Chris Johanson
Chris Johanson’s paintings, sculptures, and installations break down everyday scenes and commonplace dramas into colorful forms; the darkest sides of humanity are invoked with humor. The works comment on subjects such as capitalism, consumerism, the art world, and therapy. The triptych I Am a Human, Abstract Foil, No Humans IV (2004) is a meditation on the cosmos. It consists of three small paintings: one of a man with a head of multicolored fragments ( I Am a Human ), one of an abstract rainbow-colored geometric form on foil ( Abstract Foil ), and one of what appears to be a brightly burning star or a representation of the Big Bang ( No Humans IV ). In a playful but serious manner, it envisions the evolution of the world and the creative forces at play in nature and humankind.
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:
Other related works, blended automatically
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Chris Johanson
2000Apartment on Cardboard (2000) is an exterior view of an abstracted apartment building...
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Barry McGee
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Clare Rojas
2008Rojas’s two pieces in the Kadist Collection— Untitled (four-legged…) and Untitled (Bird’s Eyes) —are representative of her pictorial style which uses bold colorful blocks of paint and female and animal characters...
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Andrea Bowers
2015Bowers’ Radical Hospitality (2015) is a sculptural contradiction: its red and blue neon letters proclaim the words of the title, signaling openness and generosity, while the barbed wires that encircle the words give another message entirely...
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Tina Modotti
1927Modotti’s Diego Rivera Mural: Billionaires Club; Ministry of Education, Mexico D...
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Mario Ybarra Jr.
2009Ammo Bunker (2009) is a multipart installation that includes large-scale wall prints and an architectural model...
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Alicia McCarthy
2010A painting reminiscent of a certain “naive primitivism,” Untitled (the way in is the way out) is representative of McCarthy’s work...
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Andrea Bowers
2010The small drawings that comprise Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists are based on photographs taken at a political rally in downtown Los Angeles in which thousands of individuals demonstrated for immigrants’ rights...
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Ximena Garrido Lecca
2014Destilaciones ( Distillations , 2014) is an installation composed of a group of ceramic pots, presented on the floor and within a steel structure...
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Paul McCarthy
2010To make Mickey Mouse (2010), Paul McCarthy altered a found photograph—not of the iconic cartoon, but of a man costumed as Mickey...
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Luisa Lambri
2007Custom-built for a silent film star in 1934 in Santa Monica, the Sten-Frenke House is an idiosyncratic icon...
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Juan Capistran
2002The Breaks reflects Capistran’s interests in sampling and fusing different cultural, social, and historical sources...
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Alexis Smith
1990Iron Sorrows (1990) brings together what are for Alexis Smith common motifs and materials such as scavenged and repurposed metal, and street signage...
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Barbara Kasten
2008Barbara Kasten’s Studio Construct 51 depicts an abstract still life: a greyscale photograph of clear translucent panes assembled into geometric forms, the hard lines of their edges converging and bisecting at various points...
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Ben Shaffer
2007Ben Shaffer’s Ben Deroy (2007) is part performance, part self-portrait, and part spiritual vision...
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Mark Grotjahn
2002This particular drawing, like many of Grotjahn’s works, presents a decentered single-point perspective...
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Aaron Young
2007The artist describes the work as “very performative video-pieces but they take on a more sculptural feel...
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Federico Herrero
2009Federico Herrero’s energetic paintings reflect his experiences on the streets of his native San José, Costa Rica, and in the surrounding tropical landscape...
