Kerry JohnsPainter

Kerry Johns began painting in the 1970s after training as an art teacher in Brisbane and moving to Sydney where she studied with John Ogburn prior to an extended study tour of European galleries. She has since lived and worked in the Blue Mountains, the Eurobodalla and Canberra.

Her earlier work reflects domestic interiors and still life, in drawings in ink and gouache and oil on canvas, before a significant change with 1997 excursions to paint the Broken Hill desert. Later she revisited memories of her Caloundra childhood, stimulating a turn to abstraction and a new engagement with coastal environment in explorations of  ‘mythic landscapes’ that exhibit a densely layered gestural linearity. In 2002 and 2004 she exhibited this work in New York.

By 2005 Johns was working on the Eurobodalla coast with softer subjects of river estuary and forest, and finding a new stimulus to responsive abstraction in works preoccupied with subtle colour relationships.

Her recent work shows a simplification of colour, tone and shape that seeks for a greater spaciousness in sense of place and accords with her move to the Monaro landscape. There is a reliance on the language of abstraction that produces unexpected relationships and delights in using visual language to ‘find’ the subject imaginatively.

RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012  taking PLACE Chapman Gallery, Canberra

2011  New Work Ivy Hill Gallery, Wapengo NSW

2009  New Work Ivy Hill Gallery, Wapengo NSW

2008  New Work Katoomba Fine Art, Katoomba NSW

2006  Passages Katoomba Fine Art, Katoomba NSW

2004  Landmarks Ezair Gallery, New York

2002  All the wild ephemera Ezair Gallery, New York

2002  Memory & Mountains Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith

2001  The Caloundra paintings Gallery Lane, Leura

1999  Out and Back Gallery Lane, Leura

1999  Blue Air-Red Earth Broken Hill City Art Gallery, Broken Hill

1998  Blue Air-Red Earth Annandale Gallery Café, Sydney

1996  Paintings & Drawings Braemar Gallery, Springwood

1994  From the Mountains Qantas Flight Deck, Sydney

1990  New Paintings Breewood Gallery, Katoomba

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012  View and Visions Charles Hewitt Gallery, Sydney

2011  Something Personal 2 Charles Hewitt Gallery, Sydney

2008  Basil Sellers Art Prize Eurobodalla (winner)

2007  Art of the South East Diary Exhibition, Moruya, NSW

2006  Signatures Mechanics Institute, Moruya NSW

2006  Basil Sellers Art Prize Eurobodalla (finalist)

2005  Kedumba Drawing Award Wentworth Falls, NSW

2004  Land out of Time Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith

2003  Returning Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, Caloundra, Qld.

2002  Homeground Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA.

2000  Homeground Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, Caloundra, Qld.

2000  Grounded PCL Exhibitionists, Sydney

1998  Blue Mountains Artists Exchange Sanda, Japan

1997  Four Seasons Lurline Galleries Katoomba

1997  Six of the Best Oz Artspace Katoomba

1996  Paintings Mountain Artery, Katoomba

1995  Paintings Braemar Gallery, Springwood

1987  Blue Mountains Women Artists Directory Penrith Regional Gallery

1983  Shared Environments Penrith Regional Gallery

1982  Paintings, Prints and Sculpture Woollahra Art Gallery, Sydney

CITATIONS AND COLLECTIONS

Hampshire, Carole. Artists Observed, University of New South Wales Press, 2007 pp 80 - 84

McCormack, Ed. Gallery & Studio, New York. Vol 7 No1 Sept/Oct 2004, p33, 1 plate

Bronwyn Watson, Look, Art Gallery of NSW, April 2004. 'The Lewers Vision', p19, 1 plate.

Flatt, Naomi. Eyeline, contemporary visual arts, Special Issue, 2001, pp24-25

Thomas, Lynden. Textile Fibre Forum Vol20, No62, 2001, p20-21, 2 plates

Oz Arts magazine, Issue 13, 1996, p72, 3 plates and cover.

Ambrus, C. The Unseen Art Scene, Irrepressible Press 1995 pp84-87 5 plates

Speirs, Hugh Landscape Art and the Blue Mountains. Alternative Publishing Sydney, 1981, 3 plates

Collections: Kedumba Drawing Collection, Blue Mountains City Council Collection.