Lee Johnson was born in Wiltshire, and has lived and worked in London since 2000. He received his MA Fine Art from Central Saint Martins School of Art in 2001, and his works are held in the collections of Soho House, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and University of the Arts London, as well as numerous private collections worldwide (including UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, USA, and Australia).
Johnson begins by painting objects or images close to hand - the daily essentials that make us who we are. These images then take on different forms through the painting process, where the transmutation from the original object or image slowly frees the painting to become something else entirely.
Johnson’s paintings are not strictly still lives or portraits, or pure abstractions, as they are composed in the painting of the painting. They are drawn and characterised through the process of painting, creating a soulful construct of what the object or environment could be.
His paintings are thick with activity, marking the physical building of the picture, and paintings are often left a long time before completing. All original impetus is buried under the newer layers of paint, accruing new meaning. But underlying images and layers aren’t ‘lost’, they are the drives that take the painting forward, that give the paintings’ their complex personality.
