Clay Johnson

Tophat Painting in Acrylic on Canvas, 2021

2021

Clay Johnson is an American abstract painter whose reductivist compositions explore the relationships between color, form, and texture. He lives and works in Laramie, Wyoming. Johnson earned his B.A. in studio art and art history from Duke University in 1985. Afterwards, he worked as studio manager for the painter Robert Natkin. Says Johnson, “Most of what I know about painting I learned from Bob.” The technique Johnson employs is extremely rigorous, involving, as he says, “pushing paint around with palette knives and drywall tools rather than brushes.” Johnson has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States. His work is in the collections of the Kimpton Corporation and the University of Wyoming Art Museum, among others. The scraping and sanding creates a variety of different textures and leads to the emergence of unexpected forms. Because of the intensity of his method he prefers rigid surfaces, such as wood and aluminum panels, though he sometimes also works on paper and canvas stretched over panels. He prefers acrylic paint because of its fast drying time, which allows him to react quickly as the layers evolve towards a sense of completion.