Born: 1966
Media: Figurative Painting and Works on Paper
Additional Practice: Musician, including Gallon Drunk, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and PJ Harvey
Artistic Position
James F. Johnston first developed his paintings while travelling on tour, initially working in small formats before establishing a daily studio practice. His works depict figures, animals, interiors and totemic forms, combining raw immediacy with moments of remarkable delicacy.
His paintings move between everyday life, myth and imagination. Dark humour, psychological tension and a conscious simplicity define his visual language. Johnston does not paint as an extension of his music, but has developed an independent artistic practice in which material presence and narrative openness emerge directly through colour, line and form.
Selected Highlights
- Regular solo and group exhibitions throughout the United Kingdom, Norway, the Czech Republic and other European countries.
- Paintings reproduced on books and album covers, with publications in international art magazines.
- Works held in private collections internationally and in the collection of the University of Chicago in Paris.
“A remarkable gift for loose, raw painting… that straightaway imprints itself on the viewer’s imagination.” — The Economist
“Paintings full of mythic power.” — Nick Cave