Visual Art
‘SOME PEOPLE GO TO A DOMINATRIX, SOME PEOPLE SHOOT GUNS,
I LIKE TO PAINT'
Disturbed by the ‘burbs
Painting provided CHRIS JOHANSON with an escape route. But, as Ruth Hedges discovered, his success led to more complex concerns.
uhurhia can he thanked for man} things: hungalows. cul de sacs. neatly moun l;t\\lls. people carriers. swinging and horedom. Boredom ahoye all is suhurhia's gilt to its )outh. and can he thanked for pushing man) l‘rustrated. angr} teenagers into seeking out me he}ond l‘our \\';III\ and tour square meals. ll there \\ as no sale. clo}ing claustrophohia we might ne\ er ha\e had Suede or the (‘ure. But the ['8 does suhurhia hetter than most. Donnie [Mr/m and The Virgin Silica/cs all pa} homage to the dark energ} that struggles against its conlines. San lirancisco—hased artist ('hris .lohanson. \\llt)sL‘ show opens at the Modern Institute this month. realised prett} damn quick it \s as something he had to escape. 'I grew tip in suhurhia and I would sa_\ that I was inl‘luenced h_\ generic tract houses and a million hours ol teleVision. It's a \\tll'ltl of ignorant people and all that stul'l inl’luenced me to rehelf he sa}\. lle mo\ ed to San l’rancisco at the age ol’ Ill and worked as a house painter and construction worker while doing his own thing. “There \\ as so much garhage e\'er_\'\\ here that I just started doing paintings on \\ood that I found on the streets and I'd paint people that I saw around the neighhourhood.~ His work now hangs on the \Vttlls ol' the \Yhitne} in New York. the San I‘raucisco Museum of Modern .-\rt. in Santa lie. New Mexico and Vienna. .-\ustria. But for a long time the institutions didn't dig it. ‘.\'one of the mtIseums and all those people could give a shit. I watched a million people get awards and I didn't get an} of those. I had to get popular in New York and then all ot a sudden it was cool and then the) started putting me in their
106 THE LIST -'- ‘:< \l. . .‘
collectionsf
In some ol his pieces little ligurcs stand in line. go ahout their husiness and sit round tahles in flat. child- like colour there's an immediac) to them. In other works. ahstract patterns channel colours into energetic hands. B} .lohanson‘s o\\n admission he has a short attention span and the restlessness that sent him racing
out ol‘ the suhurhs translates into a multiplicit} ol~
st}les and techniques. ‘I like to get oil on making reall} ugl} paintings too.' he sa}s. 'Some people go to the gun. some people go to a dominatri\. some people shoot guns. I like to paint.‘ With increased success comes the dilemma of hecoming part of a s} stem )ou detest. '\\'hen _\ou hecome a prol'essional art person the politics of shim ing _\our stuff is a mind- l'uck. You know certain things sell am I going to deal \\ ith it or he in denial ahout it'.’ ;\m I going to draw the same hullshit thing like ten thousand times hecause l can pa} in} hills with it or am I going to take chances or am I going to take old} 50‘? chances‘.’ I think I sahotage m_\ sell prett} \tell.‘ .lohanson sa}s. ‘ll‘ )ou get consumed \\ilh thinking ahout the commerce of art _\ou can't reaII) make good art hecause )ou're hecoming this rohot. I like to address in} commodil‘ication h_\ making too much art and hecoming a had in\estment.’
'l'oh} \Vehster ol‘ the \lodern Institute ohxiousI} doesn’t think he is. I’or the Modern Institute shou .lohanson is planning on huilding a Iiotise \\ ith a homh shelter. You can take the ho} out of suhurhia . . .
Modern Institute, Glasgow, Fri 12 Nov-Fri 10 Dec.
III!
THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
:5: Ed Ruseha Bringing some Californian glamour to the November gloom, this retrospective of the west coast American legend displays photographs. drawings and books plus recent paintings in the exhibition’s only UK showing. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Edinburgh, until Sun 76 Jan.
:5: Noonday Demons Exorcise those demons. The many faceted beast (and sometime beauty). melancholia, is explored by four contemporary Icelandic artists thr0ugh video. drawing, installation and sound. CCA. Glasgow, until Sun 27 Nov.
=l= Avant Garde Graphics 1918434 When Europe was shaping up under new ideological visions post-WW1. its finest graphic designers were creating images to match the force of power, change and energy. A stunning collection. See review. Hunter/an Art Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 27 Nov.
=l= Somewhere Everywhere Nowhere Ambitious and wide- ranging show from France's “Regional Contemporary Art Foundations‘ collection with a loose theme of place and space. Images of Manhattan. Copacabana and suburban France provide the scope and works by Douglas Gordon (pictured) and Martin Boyce offer a Scottish line. See review. DOA, Dundee, until Sat 4 Dec 8 the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. until Sun 28 Nov.
=E= Callum Innes New series of large-scale paintings from the modest but massively successful Edinburgh artist whose work is meticulously worked up and subtly dressed down. Ingleby Gallery, Fri 5 Nov—Sat 18 Dec.
* Simon Starling Last chance to see the bike that's been causing lots of huff and putt within the art world. The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri Nov.