Eric Johnson

Boutade 38

2016

Inspired by both art and science, Eric Johnson creates composite works of pigment, wood and resin that reference a kinship with other artists: to the sensuality of Brancusi, the arch...

Eric Johnson creates enigmatic and sensual abstract sculptures that are constructed with pigment, wood and resin. Johnson’s work seamlessly unites two traditions of Southern California art - the sleek and sexy aesthetic of the Finish Fetish movement and the organic and elegant tradition of woodworking. His handcrafted pieces are sheathed in resin skins, which often reveal glimpses of the wooden architectures encased within. Endlessly fascinated by physics and science, Johnson’s references range from cosmology and astrophysics to the human form. Johnson’s work is deeply personal - in addition to drawing inspiration from his ancestral boat-building heritage (which is Norwegian, Scottish and Cree Native...

The Madame X works exemplify Eric Johnson’s passionate embrace of the sensuality of form. The sculptures are imbued with abstract bursts of color beneath pristine surfaces, which appear to undulate as one moves around their double-helix curves. Seen together, the series is a celebration of the exquisite harmony of depth, structure, color, and lovingly polished surfaces, somewhat blurring the line between painting and sculpture. Interestingly, the Madame X series was inspired by a painting by John Singer Sargent, and pays homage to Sargent’s portrait of the same title, which scandalized the Paris Salon of 1884. While Parisians were shocked by the slip of a dress strap and the alabaster complexion of the portrait’s subject, Johnson was inspired by the sinewy, vertical curves of Sargent’s composition. At the nexus of the L.A. art scene for nearly forty years, Eric Johnson’s work bears a distinctly Southern California hot-rod, materials-based aesthetic. Early on, Johnson was drawn to artists whose work also grew out of L.A.’s surf and car culture sensibilities. Utilizing new materials and industrial products, like resin & plastic, artwork of impossibly slick, sleek character began to emerge and was termed “Finish Fetish”. Johnson’s work is next generation heir to this work, and carries forward the DNA of such legendary Light and Space, Finish Fetish, artists as Craig Kaufman, DeWain Valentine, Billy Al Bengston, Larry Bell, Tom Jenkins and Tony DeLap. Eric Johnson’s works are also acutely personal representations of his life. A severe neck injury, and struggle with intense spinal pain, served as the initial catalyst for his exploration of structural forms, which are also informed by his ancestral heritage - Scottish, Cree Indian, and perhaps a boat-building urge from the Norse. His father, a race-car driver and expert in custom car fabrication, passed on a passion for cars and their restoration. Scouted into the Air Force during the Vietnam war as a fencing instructor (though he never served), Johnson discovered he was color-blind during an eye-exam. Surprisingly, this ignited an interest in color and experiments with layering automotive pigments and clear resins, which Johnson continues with in this series, fabricating molds, which allow him to do multiple iterations of the same shape while investigating variations of color. Eric Johnson attended Valley College; California Institute of Art and received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from University of California at Irvine. Johnson’s work is in many public and private collections, including: Oakland Museum; Laguna Beach Museum; Museum of Art and History (MOAH); Lancaster, CA; C.B.S. Broadcasting, New York, NY; Digital Domain, Venice, CA; Mary Barnes...

Inspired by both art and science, Eric Johnson creates composite works of pigment, wood and resin that reference a kinship with other artists: to the sensuality of Brancusi, the arch...

Francois Bauer studied graphic design in Chaumont, then went to HEAR, where he deepened his curriculum in object design. He then studied at the European Institute of Ceramic Arts in ...

Robert Cook’s Splash sculpture draws inspiration from the iconic photograph of a drop of milk creating a circle and splash in a pool of milk. This fleeting moment of suspended motion sparked Cook’s exploration of how to capture such dynamic energy in a static form. Robert Cook was a great American sculptor and his works are in many museums and his iconic Dinoseras piece commands a spot on the street of New York at 51st Street. Important to note with this work that it is unique and there are no other casts. Cook sculpted in wax and when he cast this destroyed the wax and there was no mould. Very few sculptors work in this manner and it speaks to a very pure and altruistic form of sculpture. If perhaps he had been more commercially minded he would have done large editions but instead he valued singularity as in nature. In Splash, Cook freezes a moment of kinetic energy, capturing the elegant tension between impact and expansion. The sculpture embodies both grace and chaos, with a fluidity that suggests movement at the very instant it’s frozen in time. Cook’s mastery of his medium allows this dynamic moment to be immortalized in bronze, creating a powerful and emotional resonance that transcends the physical form, making Splash both a formal and philosophical exploration of time, space, and motion. Signed: R Cook...

Ben McLeod (b. 1948, Aberdeen, Scotland) is a preeminent Canadian sculptor whose over five-decade practice is characterized by a profoundly self-propelled trajectory and the cultivat...

"Drift" by Michael Thacker British, 21st Century Portoro Marble with Gold Leaf Sculpture size (HxWxD): 25 x 18 x 11.5 inches Monogrammed and dated 19 07 18