Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson is a Los Angeles–based painter whose work explores the porous boundaries between figuration and abstraction, intimacy and transcendence. His paintings are populated by ethereal, often otherworldly figures that dissolve into radiant fields of color, hovering between presence and disappearance. At once playful and metaphysical, Johnson’s imagery draws from a long engagement with American painting traditions while pushing toward a deeply personal, contemporary vision.

Working primarily on the floor, Johnson stains raw canvas with fluid washes of color, allowing chance, gravity, and gesture to guide the composition. His process recalls the legacy of Color Field painting while embracing spontaneity and improvisation as generative forces. Figures emerge organically from the surface, angelic, grotesque, comic, or spectral, suggesting cosmic energies, emotional states, and moments of human connection. Embracing couples, drifting bodies, and luminous faces appear to merge and dissolve, evoking ideas of nonduality, transformation, and interconnectedness.

Johnson’s paintings often suggest landscapes from another dimension, psychedelic terrains animated by light, movement, and a sense of quiet wonder. Beneath their apparent ease lies a sustained investigation into perception, vulnerability, and the tension between control and surrender in painting.

His work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at leading galleries and institutions, including Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, Shanghai), Gana Art (Seoul, Los Angeles), Over the Influence (Los Angeles, Hong Kong), Ross + Kramer (New York), Gallery Poulsen (Copenhagen), and Marlborough Gallery (New York). Museum exhibitions include presentations at The Museum of Modern Art, Mass MoCA, and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art.

Johnson’s work is held in major public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles; and Colección SOLO, Madrid. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, and CCA Andratx.

He received his MFA from Hunter College, New York.