PRESS RELEASE
FEBRUARY 6, 2023
Florida School of the Arts presents mixed media by Ezra Johnson
Florida School of the Arts presents paintings and animations by Tampa-based artist Ezra Johnson. The mixed media exhibit opens with a reception on Thursday, February 16 at 5:00 p.m. and will showcase Johnson’s experimentation with color, form and surface.
Patrons will gain insight on Johnson’s expansive art practice and his playful, energetic approach to serious subject matter. Johnson’s oil paintings mine traditional genres such as still life, interior and landscape as a basis for painterly investigations of color and surface. His work with stop frame animation are multi-media narratives that combine paint, canvas, paper, advertising, and photography, as well as sculptural objects.
Two large paintings included in the exhibit (“Morning” and “Night”) include the interiors of a room looking out into a garden at different times of day. According to Johnson, the contrast between inside and outside is a device used in several animations on exhibit as well. For the artist, Johnson said this contrast becomes analogous to questions of where reality and subjectivity start and end in the process of creating painterly worlds.
This exhibition showcases Johnson’s work with animation over the course of more than 15 years. The animations both celebrate and complicate traditional languages of oil painting. The medium of animation showcases Johnson’s exploration of paint as a material that moves and flows with different kinds of viscosity. For Johnson, one of the most exciting aspects of animation is its ability to hold together otherwise disparate approaches and ideas within one continuous artwork.
Johnson has exhibited at many prestigious museums such as the Nerman Museum of Art in Kansas, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Site Santa Fe Biennial, the ICA in Philadelphia, as well as gallery exhibitions, nationally and internationally. Johnson is represented by Freight + Volume Gallery in New York and Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida. Johnson received an MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2006 and a BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2000.
The exhibit is free and open to the public and can be viewed 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and during FloArts main stage performances through March 30.
Florida School of the Arts is located on the St. Johns River State College Palatka Campus and serves the entire state of Florida. FloArts is part of the academic and administrative structure of SJR State and awards associate degrees in acting, dance performance, musical theater, stage management, theater technology, graphic design/new media and studio art. For more information, call (386) 312-4300 or visit FloArts.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Florida School of the Arts presents mixed media by Tampa-based artist Ezra Johnson. Included in the exhibit are two paintings, “Morning” and “Night,” that demonstrate how the contrast becomes analogous to questions of where reality and subjectivity start and end in the process of creating painterly worlds.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Michelle Sjogren
Assistant Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Strategic Communications
(904) 276-6814
Susan Kessler
Director of Public Relations and Marketing
(386) 312-4021