Save the Date: Teddy Johnson exhibit opoens at Minas Saturday, June 2
Peggy Hoffman
Teddy Johnson
What I may have seen on Routes 70 & 340
New Paintings
June 2 –August 26, 2012
Reception: Saturday, June 2 / 6 - 9 pm
Hours: 11 - 6 Closed Mondays & Tuesdays
About the Work
The paintings in this series are meditations on highways 70 and 340, specifically the sections running west from Baltimore, through West Virginia, into northwest Virginia. This stretch of highway is very dear to me, as it symbolizes the pathway between two of my homes. I was born and raised in Winchester, Virginia and I have spent much of the last 10 years in Baltimore. The paintings feature my interpretations of the landscape as I travel these highways, juxtaposed with reinterpretations of figure drawings by 19th century Harper's illustrator, writer, and journalist, David Hunter Strother, better known by his pen name Porte Crayon. Extracted out of their original and sometimes problematic contexts more than 150 years later, many of the figures represented in this work are depicted close to where they were originally drawn.
The time in which Strother worked was a time of significant upheaval in America. The 10 years before the Civil War were the peak of his career as an artist. He later served as a Union Officer in the Shenandoah Valley. Given his muddy political views and his alliance to both the Union and to his birthplace of Virginia, Strother was on both sides of the conflict. His Harper’s illustrations and his archived sketchbooks document hundreds of people throughout the region of all classes and races at a time before widespread photography. Though his body of work is a detailed attempt to document the people of the area, it is also a product of its time and place.
This show is meant to share a conversation I’ve had with myself over a number of years. I think about the complex history these highways pass through. I think about the ongoing development of Western Maryland, Northwest Virginia and West Virginia around 70 and 340. As Washington DC continues to stretch its circle further outwards, the farmland and landscape of the past becomes housing developments. I sought to interpret figures that I feel offer a glimpse of humanity, at once trying to see if I could envision these documented people in the landscape that once existed, simultaneously wondering how they might react to see this same landscape today.
About the Artist
Teddy Johnson received his BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, his MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Georgia, and studied painting and Italian Art for a year in Cortona, Italy. His paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and art spaces in the Mid-Atlantic area as well as at Fay Gold Gallery and the Bill Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, and UnionDocs in NYC. His international exhibits include Italy and Korea. Johnson was featured in the May 2011 edition of the Korean Magazine "Art People" as the month's featured World Artist. He has curated shows in Baltimore, MD and Brooklyn, NY with the Rotating History Project, which he co-founded with Heather Rounds in 2010. His paintings work with the traditions of Western Art and history as a forum to explore storytelling, human psychology, color, and contemporary culture.
Image: No Longer William Montague, He was just Bill Taggs out on Route 70
Oil on Canvas, 2012, 30” x 25”
Minás Gallery & Boutique
815 W. 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
www.minasgalleryandboutique.com
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 11 – 6
