Stacie Johnson makes art from the everyday items that she finds in her immediate surroundings. In her process of creating seemingly abstract works, Johnson first builds a temporary sculpture out of such items as fabric, pink Styrofoam, paper, tape, wood, and string. Johnson carefully observes these weird tableaus of line and color, studies the forms and shadows, then re-creates the sculptures in paint. In the translation from sculpture to painting, Johnson concentrates on the tension between illusion and flatness, condensing the accumulated passages in the 3-dimensional forms to embody similar relationships in a flat image. The paintings allow the viewer simultaneously to believe in and recognize the means of illusion. Stacie chooses this practice as a way to participate in the discussion of abstract painting while fulfilling a personal desire to express the extrasensory within the physical.
**this text written by Katie Geha in regards to the work Stacie's
recently exhibited at her gallery SOFA in Austin, TX
Stacie Johnson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She recently relocated
from Chicago where she showed with many alternative arts venues such
as Roots & Culture, Alogon, Mini Dutch, Swimming Pool Project Space,
COMA, Lisa Boyle Gallery and had solo shows at Contemporary Art
Workshop, Old Gold and Threewalls. She received a Special Assistance
Grant from the Illinois Arts Council in 2006 and a Visual Arts
Scholarship from The Union League Foundation in 2004. Johnson attended
the Vermont Studio Center in 2005 and the Harold Arts Residency
program in 2009. She received her MFA in 2004 from the University of Illinois
at Chicago.
