What is my work about?
My paintings are abstractions that explore visual tensions between two dimensions and three. The effect is a play between shadow and pattern. The intention is to confuse the actual object with the painted image. Painting techniques such as trompe l?oeil, drop-shadows, gradients, and overlapping shapes exaggerate dimensionality and reference the digital. The painted image is an illusion of space, movement and energy. The illusion mimics the shallow space of the actual canvas. It is within this space that I believe a painting is charged with an essence greater than it can physically contain. My practice is a process of searching for psychic content to manifest itself in the formal elements and physical materials of the painting. I am trying to create a new image on each canvas, idealistic perhaps, but acknowledging that making and viewing an abstract painting is a leap of faith.
Artist Statement
The intentional part of my practice is to confuse the actual object with the painted image. The painted image exaggerates a dimensionality that is similar to the actual depth of the canvas frame. Most of the works are oil paintings on canvas or, more recently, linen. In these rectangular paintings, the canvas is prepared with a transparent gesso so that the canvas itself is incorporated into the image, using the color and texture of the canvas as another element in the composition. This emphasizes a comparison between painted image and the actual object. Tromp l’oeil and drop shadows are techniques often used in the painted image, but in a few works I am able to achieve these effects sculpturally as well. The paintings in images #3, #4, #19 and #20 are works on paper hung within shaped wooden frames. The paper “cut-outs” and the wood frames interact with each other, confusing positive and negative space. The trompe l’oeil and overlapping effects are both illusory and actual. For a recent exhibition entitled “Off the Wall” at Parallel Gallery, I created a shaped work on paper that has a front and a back and instead of existing in a shaped frame, is displayed on a pedestal in the middle of a room. This piece is documented in images #5 and #6. With all of this new work I am trying to emphasize an interaction between the space depicted in the painting and the space around it, whether that “background” space is the room, the wall, the frame or the canvas.
The intuitive part of my practice is to search for psychic content that manifests itself in physical material. Making each painting is the act of looking for a new image. Although the result is abstract, each painting becomes a self-portrait, in the sense that it is a portrait of the time I spent with the painting while making it. The art historian and critic James Elkins describes this process when he stated “paint is a cast made of the painter’s movements, a portrait of the painter’s body and thoughts.” Each painting creates a picture of the act of painting, a portrait of movements that reveal intangible personal qualities such as my humor and mood. My paintings go beyond an expression of bodily movement because they take multiple sessions to complete and are highly edited. Decisions are reconsidered many times, allowing them to be influenced by many factors, some of which I am not aware of and do not understand. I believe that each painting becomes a portrait of cosmic energies; revealing a pattern created by the universe. An understanding of painting as a cosmic action is described by Francois Jullien:
“In China, the purpose of painting is to rediscover the elemental and continuous course of the cosmic pulsation through the figurative representation of a landscape … The tension created by the correlation between the lines and the washes, the visible and the invisible, fullness and emptiness, endows the landscape with a power to suggest more than the merely visible and open it to the life of the spirit.”
My practice has led me to research different theories regarding the relationships between visible and invisible forces. I am interested in philosophies that describe how intangible ideas and invisible forces are present in physical manifestations. Some examples are Chinese medicine’s understanding of how emotions affect different parts of the physical body, Feng Shui’s understanding that clutter in your home can limit success in life, and Urban Planning as a way to influence human behavior. These are all theories about how invisible forces literally affect physical materials and vice versa. The visual tensions in my work (between the 2D and the 3D and between the painted image and the actual object) are my way of illustrating the notion that paintings are charged with energies greater than they can physically contain.
CV
EDUCATION
M.F.A. Studio Arts 2004 University of Illinois at Chicago
M.F.A. Candidate, Studio Arts 2001 University of Wisconsin, Madison
B.A. Communication Studies 1999 University of Iowa
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013
Stacie Johnson, Bull & Ram, Migrating Curatorial Project, Queens, NYC
2010
Pizza, Ebersmoore, Chicago
2010
Diamond in the Middle, SOFA Gallery, Austin, Texas
2008
Mise en Scene, Mini Dutch, Chicago
Here and Now, ThreewallsSOLO, Threewalls, Chicago
2007
Making Faces, Old Gold, Chicago
2006
Stacie Johnson, Gallery 2, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
2005
Staying In, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015
Hap Gallery, Portland, OR (upcoming)
2014
I’m Jealous of Your Failures, curated by Trew Schriefer, University Galleries, Normal, IL (upcoming)
OFFLINE, Radiator Gallery, LIC, NYC
Off The Wall, Parallel Gallery, Queens, NYC
Regina Rex: New Threads, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2013
Surface, Judith Racht Gallery, Harbert, Michigan
#throwbackthursday/#flashbackfriday, Calico, Brooklyn, NY
Head, Institute Library, New Haven, CT
2012
Flashback (window installation), 111 Front Street, Dumbo Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Regina Rex: Part II, Eli Ping Gallery, NYC
30/30, One Strange Bird, Chicago
2011
The Other Picture, Gallery FAB, University of Missouri-St. Louis, MO
Capella, Kidd Yellin, Brooklyn, NY
Still Life, Art Palace, Houston
The Myth and the Mountain, COHORT collective, Brooklyn
Heavy, Place Gallery, Brooklyn
2010
Coil Contract, Horse Trader Projects, Aqua Art Fair, Miami
I Forgot My Mantra, Brooklyn Fire Proof, Brooklyn
2009
The Yield: 2009 Resident Exhibition, Harold Arts @ Heaven Gallery & Johalla Projects, Chicago
Joseph Frasca Memorial Works on Paper Exhibition, Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago
Selections from the Fabio-Mueller Collection, one-night only, Mini Dutch, Chicago
“Post” (Old Gold) & “My Turn!” (Mini Dutch), Artist Run Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago
Myth in Material, curated by Elizabeth Chodos, Alogon Gallery, Chicago
Suspend, Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center, Chicago
2008
Swimming Pool Project Space Booth, BRIDGE, Miami Beach
An Associate Degree in Science, (traveling exhibition) @ The Finch Gallery, Chicago;
Open Lot Gallery, St. Louis & The Pampered Banana, Kansas City
Bitchen, curated by Nina Rizzo, BadDogGallery, Dekalb, IL
Old Gold Artists’ Project, NEXT Fair, Chicago
COMA #18: The Final COMA, COMA (California Occidental Museum of Art), Chicago
Faculty Biennial, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
2007
…and i am blue…, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington, IL
Open, Fivepoints Arthouse, San Francisco
COMA #11, COMA (California Occidental Museum of Art), Chicago
Surroundings Revisited, curated by Per Knutas, School of Art Gallery, Kent State University, Kent, OH
2006
60th Juried Exhibition, juried by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA
To London from Chicago, with great love, Artledge @ icabin, London
COMA #1, COMA (California Occidental Museum of Art), Chicago
John Van Wmson, BSD (Butchershop-Dogmatic), Chicago
Almost 30, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
2005
Aqua Art Fair (Lisa Boyle Gallery), Miami
NOVA Young Art Fair, (Contemporary Art Workshop), Chicago
Spring Break Chicago 2005, Butchershop, curated by ArtLedge, Chicago
2004 Stacie Johnson & Kimberly Miller, Jody Monroe Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
Den Nya Framtidsvetenskapen (The New Science Fiction), Lisa Boyle Gallery, Chicago
Other Spaces, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago
Juventis, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago
RESIDENCIES
Contemporary Artists Center-Woodside, Troy, NY, Summer 2012
Harold Arts, Southeastern Ohio, Summer 2009
Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, Summer 2005
AWARDS
“Best in Show” Monetary Prize, Travel and Leisure Benefit Auction, James Hotel, Chicago, 2006
Special Assistance Grant, Illinois Arts Council, 2006
Full Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center Residency Program, Johnson, VT, 2005
Visual Arts Scholarship, Union League Civic & Arts Foundation, Juror: Hamza Walker, Chicago, 2004
Vera Chreptowsky Award, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL, 2004
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Johnson, “Off the Wall at Parallel Art Space in Queens,” Theartblog.org, March 18, 2014
Linnea West, Regina Rex’s Group Think: Brooklyn Collective at UGA’s Gallery 307, Burnaway.com, February 2014
Jessica Smith, Covered Walls and Windows, Flagpole.com, February 2014
Amie Zimmer, Greenpoint Gallery Night, The Magazine of The School of Art & Design, Parsons, September 2013
Cair, Patrick, Sculpture-based Paintings by Stacie Johnson, ArtSponge.com, September 2012
Artist of the Week: Stacie Johnson, LVL3 Gallery blog, lvl3.tumblr.com, August 10, 2012
Hurst, Howard, Who is Regina Rex?, Hyperallergic.com, August 2, 2012
Stacie Johnson, Chicago Painting (blog), May 6, 2010
Featured Artist, Design for Mankind, (website) August, 2009
Ise, Claudine, “Small is (Usually) Good,” Bad at Sports Contemporary Art Talk, (blog) March 2, 2009
Nichols, Thea Liberty, “Hanging with Paintings in Suspend,” ArtSlant.com, January 19, 2009
Funari, Rachel. “Recommended: Review: Suspend/Roots & Culture,” NewCity, January 26, 2009
Edwards, Natalie, “Recommended: Review: Stacie Johnson/Mini Dutch Gallery,” Newcity, October 26, 2008
Itch ONLINE, NonText Section, Edition No. 2: “Entry to Asterisk Land,” September 2008
Klein, Paul. Artletter, (blog) 05/16/08
Foumberg, Jason, “Breakout Artists 2008” NewCity, Arpril 24, 2008
“Voices: Stacie Johnson,” NY Arts Magazine, March/April 2008
Harmanci, Reyhan. “North Beach gallery opens with ‘avant’ work,” San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 4, 2007
Interview with Katie Geha:”The Little Diamond is Our Little Secret,” www.weirddeermedia.com, July 11, 2007
IMAGE: Chicago Reader, June 8, 2007
Shinn, Dorothy. ‘Minimalists Dot Landscape,’ Akron Beacon Journal, February 4, 2007
New American Paintings, 2006 Midwestern Competition, Volume 65, Juried by Carl Belz
Weinberg, Lauren ‘John Van Wmson,’ Time Out Chicago, February 2-9, 2006
‘John Van Wmson,’ Flavorpill, Issue 70, January 17-23, 2006
Shull, Chris. ‘First Steps, First Show,” The Wichita Eagle, Friday, January 13, 2006
Workman, Michael, ‘Ladie’s Night,’ New City, January 12, 2006
Picket, Debra, ‘Make No Mistake, There’s A Message Here,’ Chicago Sun-Times, Friday, April 4, 2003
CURATING
Visual Arts Editor, Make: A Literary Magazine, 2008-present
Co-Founder, Regina Rex, artist-run curatorial collective / gallery, Queens, NY, June 2010-August 2014
Lifestyle Objects, Bushwick Open Studios, The Active Space, Brooklyn, May 2012
Cross-Fade, Swimming Pool Project Space, Chicago, February 2009
threehundredsix, co-curated with Michael Behle, Hoffman-LaChance Contemporary, St. Louis, MO
PROFESSIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY, Summer 2009, Instructor, Course: Beginning Drawing
THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, Fall 2008, Instructor, Course: Painting Practice
ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY, Fall 2006 – Spring 2008, Instructional Assistant Professor, Full-time, Non-Tenure Track
Courses: Drawing Fundamentals, Figure Drawing, Painting I, Painting II, Graduate Independent Study
NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, Fall 2005 – Spring 2006, Visiting Assistant Professor
Courses: Intermediate Life Drawing, Painting I, Painting II, Painting III/IV
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS @ CHICAGO, Fall 2002 – Spring 2004, Instructor of Record
Courses: Drawing I, Color Theory