Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
opening July 16
Brett Allen Johnson, Sulfur and Iron, oil, 20 x 40.
Regarded as one of the contemporary western art world’s ascending stars, Brett Allen Johnson continues to live up to that accolade as he delves ever deeper into the rugged southwestern landscape. Johnson returns to Maxwell Alexander Gallery on Saturday, July 16, with Deep Desert, his sixth annual solo show since his debut there in 2016. A public reception featuring the artist is slated for 6 to 8 p.m. that evening.
Johnson’s usual solo exhibition spot in the fall has been adjusted this year to make room for the Los Angeles gallery’s 10th anniversary celebration in October. Johnson plans to show seven to 10 new landscapes, “mostly paintings, but I’m considering adding a couple of drawings,” the artist notes. “They’re natural extensions of my previous work. I wanted to take some of the same ideas and push them a little further.” His modern yet timeless interpretation of the land he loves—notably that of his home state of Utah and its southern neighbor, Arizona—is a compelling hybrid of expressionism, modernism, and abstraction. Starkly majestic scenes of rugged red rocks and craggy clay cliffs are skillfully played out with hard edges, deconstructed forms, and intense colors. “I really wanted to put together a group of work that would showcase some more of the out-of-the-way places I like to visit,” Johnson explains. “I favor locations that require a little more prodding to find good paintings, since that can make for a more introspective approach.”
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- Brett Allen Johnson, Mesa With Grey Hills, oil, 18 x 20.
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- Brett Allen Johnson, Red Pocket, oil, 16 x 20.
Johnson’s sharp eye for composition and color results in works that are emotionally evocative and visually stunning. “Throughout southern Utah and northern Arizona, there are pockets of strangely colored clay hills,” Johnson explains. “In SULFUR AND IRON, I’ve shown an area with these deep reddish-brown cliffs that have layers of this clay at the base,” he notes. “It’s a beautifully bizarre combination, one with many creative possibilities.” Those burnt-sienna cliffs also take center stage in RED POCKET. “The painting features a group of cliffs that caught my eye one afternoon while driving through Arizona,” the artist reveals. “In the midday sun, the warm, reflected light made the color in the shadows quite intense. I had fun molding the forms and distorting the geological layers in both paintings.”
In this show, as in those before it, Johnson exemplifies Maxwell Alexander Gallery’s dedication to the new breed of fine art. “We’re attracted to artists with a different vision of the West, and we saw that early in Brett’s development,” says Beau Alexander, the gallery’s director. “Each year his work becomes more sophisticated and more defined as he further explores his own voice to set himself apart from his contemporaries. It’s been fun to be along for the ride.”
It’s also a fun and informative ride for western art lovers. “I hope that viewers see something familiar, but that they also can sense the otherworldly nature of these desolate places I hold dear,” Johnson concludes. “There’s magic in these hills.” —Beth Williams
contact information
213.275.1060
www.maxwellalexandergallery.com
This story appeared in the June/July 2022 issue of Southwest Art magazine.