 Hamburger Stew with Monkey Head (detail), 2003 Acrylic Collage on Vinyl, 97 x 83 inches Aaron Johnson Bubblin' Crude Priska C. Juschka Fine Art is pleased to present "Bubblin' Crude", an exhibition of recent works by Aaron Johnson, the artist's first solo show in New York. Johnson uses painting as a dissecting probe, investigating how the human biological organism operates through the filters of culture and society. His meticulously surgical method melds intricate collage, miniaturesque painted detail, and chaotic gushes of oozing paint. The resulting thick, visceral skins of paint are mounted on clear supports, installed off the wall for inverted viewing, an experience of heightened physicality that supports the corporeal content. Johnson employs a dual viewing experience that requires a long distance for the macrocosmic gestalt and an intimate up- close view for the microcosm of details. An alchemy of pictorial languages places abstract expressionism against frenzied cartoon, mad science against sensual baroque, resulting in internally conflicted hybrids, engaging the viewer in an experience of tension and complexity. The imagery created in Johnson's paintings is a cross-section of figures composed of exposed systems of pulsating innards. These figures fight over mutant hamburgers, chomp at each other's flesh, and melt into each other in a bubbling stew of bodily fluids. Germinating within the bellies of these beasts, images of food, sex, and animals extracted from magazines construct a metaphor for hunger, lust, and animalistic-human drives. The appetite for consumption is as infinite as the multitude of mouths yapping and howling and biting for more. Current political and cultural conditions are examined, being the direct result of this subverted, inherent biology. The ejaculatory bomber jet takes over the global skies, spewing a rain of sex-burgers, feeding the slime of mono- culture to everyone everywhere. Everything is oozing. Aaron Johnson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He holds a BS in Molecular Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona, Tucson, and is currently working towards an MFA at Hunter College. He has exhibited in numerous group shows in New York and around the country, including the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CO. Exhibition: May 21 - June 21, 2004 Gallery hours: Wed-Mon 12 - 6 pm and by appointment Priska C. Juschka Fine Art 97 North 9th Street, (between Berry Street & Wythe Ave.) USA-Brooklyn, NY 11211 Telephone 00718 782 4100 Fax 718 782 4800 Email gallery@priskajuschkafineart.com www.priskajuschkafineart.com |
 |