As if seared into our collective consciousness, some photos of the American Southwest appear to completely embody its inhospitable terrain, mercurial climate, and intense, difficult magnificence. One in every of these would most definitely be Edward Curtis’ dramatic 1904 {photograph} of the sacred Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “deh-shay”) in Arizona, that includes a string of Navajo riders on horseback, silhouetted towards towering rock formations behind them.
Each a file of the Indigenous inhabitants who referred to as this land dwelling for hundreds of years, taken 40 years after the compelled march often known as the Lengthy Stroll, the photograph can also be a testomony to a rapidly evolving nation. And the drama of the area’s canyons, ridges, mountains, buttes, and mesas proceed to enthrall us right this moment. For Brett Allen Johnson, these timeless, arid landscapes encourage glowing oil work that draw upon the legacies of Western painters like Maynard Dixon and Georgia O’Keeffe.
A solo present of Johnson’s work, Two Worlds, opens subsequent month at Maxwell Alexander Gallery. Many of the photos proven listed below are included, just like the mineralized, colourful outcrops of “Banded Cliffs, Fruita,” primarily based on a historic location in Capitol Reef Nationwide Park. The exhibition additionally contains the present’s titular portray, “Two Worlds,” which reveals an nameless, fully uninhabited canyon rim from the other facet.
Johnson’s kinds are brushy and considerably simplified, though to not the extent that they seem cartoonish. He smooths rocky ledges, provides clouds the burden of dense felt, and illuminates apertures in pueblos, mountains, and rainstorms. By way of the interaction of sunshine, shadow, and hue, he renders hovering buttes with fleshy folds and highlights distinctive patterns in nature.
“Technique, composition, color, and paint handling—they all say something even if we don’t intend them to,” Johnson says. “But the more I can get to the heart of it, the more I can simplify a painting into just the parts I find indispensable—the essence—those fundamentals become just tools in service of a vision.”
Two Worlds opens on September 6 in Pasadena. Discover extra on Johnson’s Instagram.






