Check out Benjamin M. Johnson’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin M. Johnson.

Benjamin M, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in Philadelphia and raised in southern New Jersey just on the outskirts of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. This unique, natural reserve was an important place in my youth, and many weekends were spent exploring the wilds. Other weekends were spent in Philadelphia, touring the Philadelphia Museum of Art looking at the work of Eakins, Van Gogh, and Duchamp with my father.

As a teenager I started taking summer and Saturday classes in drawing at the Moore College of Art, and went on to study at the University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2001, I became active professionally in the arts, regularly exhibiting my paintings, working in the gallery sphere, doing public art projects and teaching. Reflecting the great influences of my youth, my work was largely based on the natural world, and sought to bring that wildness into urban spaces. Birds became a primary focus of my work, and in 2008 I travelled to Southern Arizona to make a series of paintings of this region’s birdlife.

That trip was so influential that a year later, I relocated to Tucson to continue my career in the Sonoran Desert. The desert has a quiet and stillness that reminds me of the Pinelands of my youth, and I immediately felt at home. Since relocating to Arizona, I’ve curated and engaged in collaborative projects, and while the focus of my paintings is ever changing, the impulse to draw a connecting line between the human experience and the natural world is ever present.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
– Like many artists, I explore a wide variety of media, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and video. Painting has always been my first and primary love, however. My father is an oil painter and I think that it’s just in my blood. There is an everyday magic in painting. Somehow, pigment brushed out onto a surface can take on other qualities, dimensions and stories, and I love that everyday alchemy. My two earliest and most significant artistic influences were Duchamp and Eakins. They together taught me to appreciate paint, its power to express emotion and humanity, and to tell a story. A story that may take some time to unfold for the viewer. Duchamp’s intellectual sense of play and Eakins’ dedication to the human form and scientific study are still influential in the studio as my work continues to evolve. For many years I devoted myself to the landscape as my main subject, then birds became my focus, then still life. Today my studio is filled with new paintings in each of these areas of interest, along with a returning interest in the human form. I’m currently exploring the human experience and how the natural world is affected and influential in that story. I want my work to inspire people to feel their own place in this world, to look in wonderment at simple objects, and feel inspired to appreciate the world around us, and the world within us.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
The life of the artist can be an unconventional one. This has always been the case, and it’s a beautiful thing. The aftermath of the 2007 housing crash had significant financial effects on everyone, and the arts were no exception. Artists however, are endlessly creative people, and artists are always looking for new ways of reaching audiences, making a living, and pushing their work forward. This is the artists life. Not just making work, but the work of connecting with audiences.

The work of thinking outside of the norm. I think that it’s an exciting time in the arts, as arts professionals have more exposure and agency on-line, and technology makes amazing things possible. However, as a society, we can’t forget the value of the arts in our everyday lives. We can’t forget to live lives full of poetry, dance, music and painting. These aesthetic pursuits are the conduit of our cultural heritage, and devaluing the arts devalues our own humanity.

We owe it to ourselves to not only support and celebrate the work of professional artists, but to recognize the creative life within us all and ignite our collective artistic potential. Communities need to support the arts in education. Not as a novelty, but as an integral part of the core curriculum. By supporting arts education, that creative intelligence serves us all, in every field, in every walk of life.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I’m proud to be represented by Bonner David Galleries in Scottsdale. I am also represented by the Field Gallery on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard, and at F.A.N. Gallery in Philadelphia. In early 2019, my work will be included in an exhibition at the University of Arizona Museum of Art showcasing the work of a wonderful science & art collaborative project called 6&6. Further details can be found on my website: www.benjohnsonart.com

Contact Info:

• Website: www.benjohnsonart.com
• Email: benjohnsonart@gmail.com
• Instagram: benjaminmjohnson.art

Image Credit:
Benjamin M Johnson

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