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Chris Johanson
Untitled (Figures with black presence), 2002

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Untitled (Figures with black presence)
Artist name
Chris Johanson
Date created
2002
Classification
painting
Medium
acrylic on panel
Dimensions
60 in. × 60 in. (152.4 cm × 152.4 cm)
Date acquired
2007
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Gift of Amy Adelson and Dean Valentine
Copyright
© Chris Johanson
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2007.260
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Johanson on his artistic philosophy

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transcripts

NARRATOR: 

Chris Johanson worked in the Mission in the 1990s, at the height of the dot-com boom. He witnessed firsthand the effects of wealth on the Mission and other working-class neighborhoods in the city. Johansons work was a conscious departure from the waste and consumption of the boom years—wood scraps, recycled paint, and other scavenged materials are familiar elements of his paintings and installation pieces. It led one critic to describe Johansons work as One massive reclamation project. 

 

CHRIS JOHANSON:  

I dont think Im a political artist, really, but politics are inseparable. But I will say that Im a political artist, just to be not cool. So lets say, Yeah, Im totally a political artist. And I sell drawings for really cheap, because I dont want to just be priced for millionaires, because I dont think that millionaires are that interesting, really. You know? 

 

But I definitely dont think that the artist is sacred, and I dont think that a particular piece of art is sacred at all. But I think, like, creativity is sacred.  

 

NARRATOR:  

Often, Johanson depicts the energy of city life, as well as the spiritual connections between people. Curator Janet Bishop: 

 

JANET BISHOP: 

I think that Chris is really energized by human beings, both as individuals and as interconnected members of society. The painting that were looking at that has all of these figures connected to this same black shape as though they all have something similar on their minds, and yet theyre not engaged with each other physically, theyre really looking past each other—outside the borders of the piece.  

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Other Works by Chris Johanson

See other works by Chris Johanson

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