Scott Johnson, a local contemporary artist and Professor of Studio Art at Colorado College, employs various media to draw attention to the ways we perceive the presence of light as it relates to the sky, earth, and architectural space. Johnson’s investigations often find their most engaging form when the beauty of exterior light is recalled in a gallery atmosphere, bringing the outside in. Johnson looks to the role of light as it defines the materiality of earth, focusing on the ways that viewers’ experience with perception unfolds over a period of time, contributing to the belief that elemental experiences can not only be represented by art, but stimulated by art.
This exhibition will include works of installation art, sculptural objects, and two-dimensional pieces that inspire experiences in which viewers slow down and immerse themselves in the elemental qualities of light.
Born in 1969, Johnson grew up in the Colorado Rockies. He earned his BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His work as an artist has been informed by such experiences as herding cows on the Navajo Reservation, traveling upon the Silk Road and living in Venice, Italy. The focus of Johnson’s work is sculptural installation, which he states, is “meant to engage viewers in thought-provoking perceptual experiences…In the end, my work is meant to provoke wonder and compel viewers to think critically about the ways we perceive, order and represent the world.”
Johnson has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver; the Aspen Art Museum; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, TheMuseum in Ontario, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, among many other venues. Johnson’s exhibition, The Look of Nowhere, at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art was awarded “Best Conceptual Show” by Westword in 2009.