Chris Johanson

Born 1968 in San José (Costa Rica), lives and works in Portland (USA).

Chris Johanson is a pioneer of the punk/skate scene in San Francisco. An impeccable graphic artist, he has gradually developed a very personal visual style on the borders of Art Brut and abstract sophistication. In going from the street energy of his early days to the tellurian vigour of his recent work, Johanson mixes modes of expression. Sculpture, installation, music, drawing and painting, but also portraits of his contemporaries and abstraction, cityscapes and mountain scenery, all compose a singular universe that is at once very contemporary and primitive. A talented draughtsman and colourist, he has, rather like Raymond Pettibon, managed to renew contemporary pictorial language. All Johanson’s work attests a concern to paint based on the reality of his environment, but he uses only found materials.

A large selection of drawings will be presented in Colomiers, whereas some of his major paintings will be given space in the exhibition at les Abattoirs – Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse.