Galerie Talmart Presents GENE JOHNSON: AMERICAN INFLUENCES Exhibition Review — Synonymous Surfaces

Galerie Talmart’s Geometric Paintings Draw Viewers In From the Street

The exhibition, Johnson’s first solo show in France, comprises a series of paintings and photographs. Colors from the artist’s snapshots (from asphalt in Rome to staircases in Mexico) seem to appear in the paintings and vice versa. However, each work in the exhibit expresses a unique temperament. The general atmosphere of the Galerie Talmart is imbued with a sense of adventure. Walking from painting to painting, we feel we are exploring new landscapes and architectures as their most essential forms: shapes, colors, and textures. 

In this writer’s opinion, these shapes, painted in acrylic on canvas, are delicately balanced. In Turning Point, for example, a central blue triangle appears to be propped up by a smaller magenta triangle with a pronounced texture. Johnson explains that each shape “reacts” to the mood of another, subject to change in color or texture multiple times over during the painting process. The result is harmonious: Every fragment is      drawn together in a “synonymous surface”. 

Inspired by an experience taking down a Sol LeWitt exhibition in New York to make way for the next artist, Johnson relays that he became interested in the idea that forms can be transported and embedded in history. In this writer’s view, American Influences has certainly carved its record in the center of Paris  — it has made its own color. 

Johnson’s American Influences will appeal to viewers who are interested in contemporary art, particularly those who are also interested in Central and South American architecture.