Portland-​based artist Zach Johnsen has a solo show across the pond open­ing next month at Australia’s new Back­woods Gallery in Mel­bourne. It will be the first inter­na­tional solo show for Johnsen who’s career has been pick­ing up a lot of speed lately. Active in a num­ber of cre­ative are­nas Johnsen is per­haps best known for his sig­na­ture style of com­bin­ing intri­cate line work with col­or­ful washes of water­color. A graphic designer and fash­ion entre­pre­neur (he co-​founded CA/​NY based Tank The­ory) as well as a ver­sa­tile fine artist, Johnsen has been mov­ing into mak­ing more tra­di­tional paint­ings as well as branch­ing into instal­la­tion. Locally Johnsen’s work can be seen in a vari­ety of forms around town, from last summer’s Jupiter Hotel mural done with Japan­ese artist Mhak to live paint­ing col­lab­o­ra­tions with Blaine Fontana at Live & Direct. After study­ing at the Mass­a­chu­setts Col­lege of Art in Boston Johnsen moved to NYC where he got a job work­ing for Nau­tica. This dol­drum office set­ting con­tributed to the artist’s desire to push harder to make a liv­ing with his per­sonal art work, and served as inspi­ra­tion for his most well known series, Acid in the Ice­cream. The series depicted Longo-​esque lib­er­ated office drones, heads explod­ing with hal­lu­cino­genic col­ors. The series Johnsen has cre­ated for Back­woods, enti­tled Acid Over Easy, will be a con­tin­u­a­tion, and evo­lu­tion, on these themes.

Press Release for Back­woods Gallery show: “Acid Over Easy is a fre­netic show of new works on paper explor­ing a break in habits of every­day man and woman. Artist Zach Johnsen presents all new draw­ings in graphite and water­color of human forms in moments of sus­pended move­ment and anx­i­ety .. cap­tur­ing con­tin­u­ous explo­sive moments on one piece of paper.

Acid Over Easy is a world of 9 to 5ers in moments of pure rev­e­la­tion. It is a real estate agent con­fronted by spir­its that just became vis­i­ble. It is hid­den ener­gies that tug at the back of the neck. It is psy­che­delic pur­ple drink in the water cooler. It is sud­den moments of inspi­ra­tion. It is the cat­a­lyst that makes time stand still for a moment. It is get­ting in touch with nature for the first time. It is the real­iza­tion that the monot­o­nous rou­tines of day to day liv­ing isn’t all there is to expe­ri­ence.. that there is so much power within our­selves and all around us just wait­ing for us to notice….

The Acid trip continues…”

Acid Over Easy
Zach Johnsen at Back­woods Gallery

UPSTAIRS (REAR OF SIDE ALLEY)
25 EASEY ST COLLINGWOOD VIC 3066
Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia
Sat-​Sun 12-​6pm
Thur-​Fri 3-​7pm

All images cour­tesy of the artist.

Tags: Acid in the Icecream, Backwoods Gallery, Blaine Fontana, Jupiter Hotel, Live & Direct, Mhak, Robert Longo, Tank Theory, Zach Johnsen, Zenvironments

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 28th, 2011 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Art, Event, Illustration, installation, Mural, Painting, Rising Artists, watercolor.
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