ARTIST STATEMENT
My work explores the powerful sensations of being in nature. I strive for a balance between the physical landscape we see in front of us and the one we feel and remember. By using a restricted close palette, I aim for the image to go in and out of focus so that the viewer searches deeper and deeper for its meaning. It is why my work is often accompanied by poems; a series of clues and directions of what the viewer should focus on, within the painting and within themselves.
Kathryn Johnson is a Scottish oil painter whose atmospheric paintings strive to create a conversation about our emotions and experiences in nature. A graduate of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, she has also exhibited in Dundee, Edinburgh, London, Berlin and Como, Italy. In September of 2019 she embarked on a three week residency living with an indigenous community in Armila, Panama, with La Wayaka Current. In January 2020, she was selected for FBA Futures at the Mall Galleries in London, the UK’s largest annual survey of emerging contemporary figurative art. This led her to being selected for Glyndebourne’s Forces of Nature 2020 show, featuring ten female painters. The show was postponed due to Co-vid 19 and she has spent the year continuing to evolve her process and style during lockdown in rural Aberdeenshire.
C.V.
b. 1995 Edinburgh, Scotland
Currently works and lives in Aberdeen, Scotland
contact: bykathrynjohnson@gmail.com
education
2013 - 2019 Gray’s School of Art Painting (BA Hons)
awards / Press
2020 Longlisted Jackson’s Painting Prize 2020
2019 TROPIC8°N residency / La Wayaka Current / Armila, Panama / 24 September - 15 October
2019 J Gordon Brown Memorial Painting Prize
2019 The List
2019 Featured in Q1 of 130Art magazine
2018 Como Zero Gravity
selected exhibitions
2021 Contemporary Painting, Brick Lane Gallery, London, 20 July - 2 August
2021 Forces of Nature, Gallery 94 at Glyndebourne, 19 June - 30 September
2020 Figuratively Speaking, curated digitally by Claire Kidd, 30 October - 30 November
2020 Art at Glyndebourne, digitally curated by Glyndebourne, 24 May - 30 August
2020 On the Table, Marram Arts, digitally curated by Julie-Ann Simpson and Nicola Wiltshire
2020 FBA Futures 2020, Mall Galleries, London
2019 Glimpses, Solo Show, Foodstory, Aberdeen
2019 Gray’s School of Art Degree Show, Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen
2019 Gray’s School of Art Painting Exhibition, Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh
2018 Como Zero Gravity, Como, Italy
2018 An Exhibition Yet to be Titled, OT Projektraum, Berlin