Emerging Artists | Benjamin M. Johnson

 

Benjamin M. Johnson, Worlds Within Worlds, oil, 6 x 12.

Benjamin M. Johnson, Worlds Within Worlds, oil, 6 x 12.

This story was featured in the January 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art January 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Benjamin M. Johnson often jokes that paint runs through his veins. Art has been in his life since he was a boy growing up in New Jersey, where he vividly remembers his father’s own paintings decorating the walls of their home. One memorable painting depicted a desert landscape with Magritte-like touches of surrealism. “The idea of making paintings and creating worlds, to my young mind, seemed really magical,” he says.

Thus inspired, Johnson went on to study at the University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Painting, sculpture, printmaking, and welding all fascinated him. “My whole artistic drive comes from wanting to explore,” says Johnson. Which is how the artist found his way to Arizona in 2008. At that time, he was immersed in a project that involved photographing birds in flight and then painting them, and he visited Tucson for some prime bird watching. “I fell in love with it,” says Johnson. “Maybe it goes back to that desert painting my father did. When I got there, it immediately felt like home.”

Today Tucson is home for the studio artist, whose diverse oeuvre of oil paintings reflects his interests in everything from history and science to nature and the everyday objects around us. Lately he has been portraying common household tools on white backgrounds, and he’s also at work on a series of narrative-style paintings inspired by old photographs of people and places, from the Alps to national parks. “As an artist, I’m trained to look for beauty in the world,” says Johnson. “My work is about reminding myself, and hopefully viewers, that life is full of wonder.”

Find the artist’s work at Bonner David Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ; The Field Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA; and F.A.N. Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

This story was featured in the January 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art January 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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