On May 20–24, 2025, Mitchell Johnson will exhibit small paintings at Galerie Mercier in Paris. This show includes compositions from San Francisco, Paris, Newfoundland, Ventimiglia, and New York City.
Johnson has been visiting Paris and painting in France since 1989, when he was a graduate student at Parsons School of Design. The 12 paintings at Galerie Mercier are intimate works spanning the last seven years, portraying familiar scenes transformed by Johnson’s distinct take on color and scale.
Much has been written about Johnson’s reverence for art history and his influences. In his own words:
It’s a bit ironic that people have come to know my paintings through reproductions—on social media, in films, and on television in Italy, Monaco, and France — because the subject of my paintings is painting. I’m focused on color, composition, and scale — the act of seeing, the act of painting. Experiencing the work in person matters. Paintings viewed on Instagram are visual hearsay, visual rumors.
At both Galerie Mercier and 425 Market Street in San Francisco, people can see for themselves that I’m less a realist than a composer. Assembling shapes, colors and textures that strike me as mysterious and complex is an ongoing challenge. The decisions to include or remove elements are made intuitively. Including the Golden Gate Bridge in a painting feels dangerous. I’m certainly not the first to do it — all of the artists I revere have: Fairfield Porter, Matisse, Corot, Vallotton. Seeing the painting in person, it becomes clear that the bridge isn’t being described so much as it’s performing — a character in service to the painting. The viewer is free to write the allegory.
While my work draws heavily on French art history, as well as Josef Albers and Giorgio Morandi, it was the photographs of William Eggleston that set me on my current path. I saw his major exhibition at Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2009, just as my work was becoming more conceptual — less about capturing a specific place or time of day. Eggleston opened my eyes to the possibility of working with lifeguard chairs, icebergs, water towers, row boats, rooftops, bridges. He gave me the idea that these subjects could serve as scaffolding for what I wanted to explore through color.
I met Eggleston once in Palo Alto and told him how important his work was to me — and that I believed he had been deeply influenced by French painters. A big smile spread across his face.
Johnson’s paintings are in the permanent collections of over 35 museums. His show Giant Paintings From New England, California and Newfoundland continues at 425 Market Street, San Francisco, through May 30. In June, his work will be included in group shows at the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, and at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, Massachusetts.
Johnson will attend the closing reception of his exhibition at Galerie Mercier on Saturday, May 24, 4–6pm (40 rue de l’Université 75007 Paris).
For more information, visit mitchelljohnson.com and follow him on Instagram at @mitchell_johnson_artist.
