Helen Johnson Biography

From Helen Johnson’s artist statement 2013: Painting serves as the primary ground of my practice, though the approaches I take seek an understanding of painting as a loaded medium operating on new terms in a post-medium condition. I have an interest in how painting might be used as a means of addressing and reflecting on aspects of cultural identity in an open way, which I might position against a declarative way. The space of painting is for me a space where seemingly incontrovertible things are constantly being reconsidered, put into new relations with other things, where slippage is always present. In this regard it is a useful space for thought.

Helen Johnson has exhibited regularly with Sutton Gallery since 2007. Recent individual exhibitions include: Air to Surface (with Parker Ito) Curated by Liv Barrett at Prism, Los Angeles 2013, Meantime at Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 2013,  Dead Metaphor at ACME Project Space, London, 2012; and  System Preferences at Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2011.
Selected group exhibitions include: Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013; Collage: The Heide Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2013; Negotiating This World: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, 2012; Chinatown: the Sequel, ltd los angeles, 2012; Art & Australia Collection 2003 – 2013, Newcastle Art Gallery, New South Wales, 2012; Stick It! Collage in Australia Art, National Gallery of Victoria, 2010; The Independence Project, Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, 2007; Present Future, Artissima, Turin, 2007; Octopus 6, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2006; and New06, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2006.