David Stephen Johnson Western European Rugs

David Stephen Johnson (b. Pittsburgh, 1949) is an abstract painter based in Westport, Connecticut. He was awarded a scholarship to college as a star quarterback, playing for South Dakota State, and later earned his BA in Business Administration at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management in his hometown of Minneapolis. In the 70s, he moved to Chicago and shared a studio space with a sculptor at the Art Institute. He fostered his love for art while developing a series of paintings for his first show at Riverside Gallery.

He embraced his self-taught path in painting, building a deliberately unpublished body of work, studying color and shape, partly influenced by the post-war abstract expressionists. His natural athleticism and grace led him toward the great action painters.

Since 2017, he has participated in numerous exhibitions across the US in Miami, Aspen, New York, where he was the "Featured Artist to Watch". Mr. Johnson’s European debut was marked by an exhibition in Paris, then on to galleries in Madrid.

The past couple of years, his work has been embraced by fashion darling Christian Siriano, has been on the Today Show, and three of his very large-scale pieces hang in the newly completed luxury hotel Delamar Westport. A float-framed canvas hangs in the Molteni&C Casa flagship on Madison Avenue in New York.

Recently, Mr. Johnson has completed a number of commissions for private collectors across the US as well as Europe.