Eleanor Johnson produces vibrant paintings that combine a sense of irreverent absurdity with a playful aesthetic and an element of irony within the grotesque. Through confrontational imagery, Johnson's aim is to provoke thought and encourage viewers to discuss the unconventional; her canvases celebrate imagination, rekindling a sense of wonder often dulled by time.
Johnson's colourful, large-scale paintings teeter on the edge between abstraction and figuration. She plays with the dichotomy of presence and void, creating a unique balance of positive and negative spaces where biomorphic forms are captured in the process of becoming. Johnson's production shows explicit inspirations from Old Master paintings, evident in the choice of colour palettes, forms, and figurative elements.
The artist also takes inspiration from a variety of contemporary sources such as digital images or magazine clippings, which serve to heighten the relevance of her painting today. Johnson deconstructs these images, repurposing them and creating intriguing and unexpected parallelisms between the older Renaissance compositions and more contemporary imagery. The delicate and alluring attribute that results from these influences and technique is further enhanced by Johnson's heavy use and treatment of oil paint, which she dilutes with linseed oil to amplify its liquidity and visceral properties. This process, inspired by that of Willem de Kooning, is particularly relevant to the representation of the fleshy limbs that appear regularly in Johnson's work.
Eleanor Johnson (b.1994, UK) has a BA in Art History from UCL (2017), London, and an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School (2023). In 2019, she participated in a two-month residency at the Palazzo Monti in Brescia, Italy. Johnson's work is held in private collections and institutions across the UK, US, Europe, West Africa, Asia and South America. She currently lives and works in Oxfordshire, UK. Recent exhibitions include a solo presentation at Gillian Jason Gallery in 2023, and in 2024 she exhibited at the Women in Art Fair and at LAPADA. That same year, she also took part in 'Time is Always New', a duo exhibition at Gillian Jason Gallery. In 2025, Johnson exhibited internationally in Singapore with Gillian Jason Gallery in collaboration with Art Works, alongside showing in BUCOLIA II at Blue Shop Gallery, London; at NADA New York with Harper's Gallery and will participate in a group show entitled 'The Tourist' at Tang Contemporary in Seoul. She was also awarded First Prize in the Jackson's Art Prize in 2025. Johnson will present a solo exhibition at Harper's Gallery, New York, in 2026.
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One Hundred Tiny Eyes -
Colour Study After Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée
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Colour Study after Boucher no.2
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Time is Always New
Megan Baker & Eleanor Johnson 3 Oct - 16 Nov 2024In ‘Time is Always New’, Megan Baker and Eleanor Johnson explore Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ (circa 8 AD), a latin narrative poem that constitutes one of the most important works of classical literature in history. The poem chronicles a vast array of myths and legends, primarily focusing on the theme of transformation or ‘metamorphosis’. Baker and Johnson investigate specific myths and use them as a jumping-off point for the exploration of the very concept of change.Read more
While the two artists differ in their conceptual and aesthetic approach to the theme, both assign particular importance to the parallelism between humans and nature when it comes to transformation. -
The Feast of Fools
Eleanor Johnson 15 Nov 2023 - 27 Jan 2024Eleanor Johnson’s latest series of works exhibited in ‘The Feast of Fools’ explores the concepts of excess, power and overindulgence in contemporary society. Here, Johnson uses Marco Ferrari’s 1973 film...Read more
