ABOUT MITCHELL JOHNSON

Johnson was born in South Carolina in 1964, and grew up in New York and Virginia before obtaining his MFA in Painting from Parsons School Design in 1990.  After graduating, Johnson moved to Palo Alto; he has maintained his studio in Palo Alto and, more recently, in Redwood City, ever since.  While Johnson’s paintings are sometimes compared to those of Bay Area legends Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud and David Park, his particular use of flat color and pattern more accurately aligns his work with that of Paul Klee, Josef Albers, Edouard Vuillard and Giorgio Morandi.  Johnson’s paintings can be found in over 600 collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum at Pepperdine, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC.  His paintings have appeared in ARTnews, Art in America, the NY Times Magazine, American Artist, and Southwest Art.

Currently, four of Johnson’s paintings are on display in the Legacy in Continuum: Bay Area Figuration show at the Bakersfield Museum of Art.  See reviews of that show, and discussion of Johnson’s work, in the Huffington Post (the Huffington Post also features one of Johnson’s paintings in an online slide show), and in American Contemporary Art magazine.

Working primarily out of his studio in Redwood City, Johnson travels frequently to paint in Italy, France, Denmark, and Cape Cod.

 

EDUCATION:

Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA; B.S., 1986
Docent, National Gallery of Art, 1986-88
Washington Studio School, Washington, D.C., 1987-88
Parsons School of Design, New York City; M.F.A., 1990
Studio Assistant to Abram Schlemowitz, New York, NY 1990
Studio Assistant to Sam Francis, Palo Alto, CA, 1990-91
Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts with Wolf Kahn, Santa Fe, NM, 1992
New York Studio School Drawing Marathon with Graham Nickson, 2000

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2012 RES IPSA Gallery, Oakland, CA
2011 Munson Gallery, Chatham, MA
2010 Royal Danish Embassy, Washington, DC (catalogue)
Thornhill Gallery, Kansas City, MO (catalogue)
2009 Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA (catalogue)
Paul G. Allen Building, Stanford, CA
David Packard Building, Stanford, CA
2008 Laurel Tracey Gallery, Red Bank, NJ
Anita Seipp Gallery, Palo Alto, CA  (catalogue)
2007 One California Street, San Francisco, CA
Café Borrone, Menlo Park, CA
2006 J. Cacciola Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Cline Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ
Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, CA
2004 Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA (catalogue)
L’amie Donia Restaurant, Palo Alto, CA
Museo della Mezzadria, Buonconvento, Italy (catalogue)
2003 Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
2002 I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
2001 Galleria Alessandro Bagnai, Siena, Italy (catalogue)
Oakland Museum of California at Latham Square, Oakland, CA
2000 I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA (catalogue)
1999 Galleria D’Arte Contemporanea, San Donato Milanese, Italy (catalogue)
Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Augen Gallery, Portland, OR
1998 Tatistcheff and Company, New York, NY (catalogue)
I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
1997 Tatistcheff/Rogers, Santa Monica, CA
1996 Spazio Culturale Avicenna, Milano, Italy
1995 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994 Mitchell-Brown Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Hewlett Packard Headquarters, Palo Alto, CA
1993 Stanford Faculty Club Gallery, Stanford, CA
1992 Young Gallery, Los Gatos, CA
1991 Place de la Mairie, Meyreuil, France
1990 Synchronicity Space, New York, NY
1989 Place de la Mairie, Meyreuil, France

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2012 Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, MA
“Continuum,” Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA
Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley, Yountville, CA
2011 “New Acquisitions,” Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
“Group Show’” DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2010 San Francisco Art Fair, San Francisco
2009 Los Gatos Art Museum, Los Gatos, CA
Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA
2007 Bolinas Art Museum, Bolinas, CA
2006 ‘Tis of Thee, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
2004 Inaugural Group Show, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Unbounded Vistas: Artists Interpret the N. California landscape,
Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, CA
2000 Galleria Toselli, Milano, Italy
“New Acquisitions”, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
CA di FRA, Milano, Italy
Galleria Alessandro Bagnai, Siena, Italy
1998 Tatistcheff and Company, New York, NY
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Museum sales Gallery, Buffalo,NY
1996 Tatistcheff/Rogers, Santa Monica, CA
Crocker-Kingsley Biennial, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
1993 9th Biennial Drawing/Print Show, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
1992 Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

 

SELECTED COLLECTIONS:

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Oakland Museum of Art Foundation, Oakland, CA
DeSaisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA
Federal Reserve Bank Collection, Washington, DC
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
Frederick R. Weisman Museum, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Nordic Watercolor Museum, Tjorn, Sweden
Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA
Galleria D’Arte Contemporanea, San Donato Milanese, Italy
Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
Longwood Center Visual Arts, Farmville, VA
Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA
Ambassador Friis Petersen, Beijing, China
Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, CT
Bianchi Collection, Atherton, CA
Jack Blanton Collection, Palm Beach, FL
Cisco Systems, Vimercate, Italy
Comune di San Donato Milanese, Italy
Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco, CA
Comune di Buonconvento, Italy
Contempo Seville Properties, Los Gatos, CA
Crestar Bank, Richmond, VA
Energy Capital Partners, Short Hills, NJ
The Oceana, Santa Barbara, CA
Mikitani Collection, Atherton, CA
Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, CA
Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Dublin, CA
Marilena Pasquali, Bologna, Italy
PHD Enterprises, Tucson, AZ
Dain Rauscher Corporation, Minneapolis, MN
Ritz Carlton Hotel, Pasadena, CA
Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA
Rockwell International, Milwaukee, WI
Royal Danish Embassy, Washington, DC
Ridge Vineyards, Cupertino, CA
Rosewood Sand Hill Resort, Menlo Park, CA
Royal Danish Consulate, San Francisco
Sanpete Publications, Tucson, AZ
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Santa Clara, CA
Shaklee Corporation, San Francisco, CA
The Shansby Group, San Francisco, CA
Silver Oak Vineyards, Napa, CA
Richard & Linda Slade, Encino, CA
Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA
Spazio Avicenna, Milano, Italy
Susan Street, Solano Beach, CA
Tenenbaum Collection, Hillsborough, CA
Franco Toselli, Milano, Italy
Stefano Venturi, Milano, Italy
Wexford Underwriting Management, San Francisco, CA

 

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