Leasho Johnson: Somewhere between the eyes and the heart

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For Somewhere between the Eyes and the Heart, his first solo presentation at Western Exhibitions, Leasho Johnson considers the human condition by rethinking notions of looking and seeing, daring the viewer to contemplate what they know versus how they feel about diverging factors of one’s humanity. In his mixed-medium paintings, often executed on paper and then mounted to canvas, Johnson utilizes the effect of Fragmentation as a methodological foil for disruption and coping with a legacy of violence on the black queer body. Combining charcoal and homemade paints as well as natural dyes, Johnson straddles the line between fluidity and chance, as well as precision and improvisation. Somewhere between the Eyes and the Heart opens in Gallery 1 at Western Exhibitions, Chicago on June 23 with a free public reception from 5 to 8 pm and will run through August 12.

Leasho Johnson refers to his paintings as portraits, though he uses the word ‘portrait’ loosely as these works are not representations of anyone in particular; Johnson uses the “portrait” format to focus on more intimate subjects, a moment, or a memory. For example, Grammazone recalls childhood memories of eavesdropping on his mother’s conversations with her friends, touching on topics of silent violence, and subtle acts of revenge between lovers sometimes because of domestic abuse or cheating, remedied by using this poison. The rhythms of No Wanga Gut, a popular song by the dancehall artist Tiger, are embedded in this painting as admonitions of accepting food from strangers. These childhood memories and moments mark the social anxiety and, at times horror, he remembers from this time.

Free to be constant in my excess (pictured above) is a painting born of a conversation with a colleague regarding tall athletic women and their presence. Fighting back against the American Far-Right’s agenda against trans youths and the so-called ‘woke’ agenda, Johnson ponders how much both masculinity and femininity are bound up in one body and how gender is expressed in the excess of both what is expected and what is performed but never the ideal of either.

Born from layer upon layer of charcoal blended seamlessly with brushy strokes of painted color, Johnson’s matte black silhouettes stand starkly against atmospheric color-fields, as they sample from and interrogate stereotypical notions around blackness and its inhumanity. In a recent interview with Rianna Jade Parker in Frieze, Johnson discussed his striking palette: I want all the colours to be able to merge into black. I think about Blackness as a substance. In terms of space—in terms of being—blackness can be seen as a void. But it’s a void full of potential: there are so many possibilities within that universe. It’s all about a feeling, a mood.

Leasho Johnson (1984, Montego Bay, Jamaica) received a BFA from Edna Manley College in 2009, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020. In fall 2022, Johnson was an artist-in-residence at Fountainhead, Miami. Most recently, his work has been exhibited at Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; TERN Gallery, Nassau; Harper’s, Los Angeles and East Hampton; Western Exhibitions, Chicago; FLXST Contemporary, Chicago; Suzie Wong Presents, Kingston; National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee; and National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau. Johnson’s work has been written about in Frieze, Chicago Magazine, The Miami Rail, Fader, and Caribbean Beat, among other publications. Johnson splits his time between Jamaica and Chicago.

Pictured: Free to be constant in my excess, 2021. Charcoal, distemper, watercolors, acrylic, oil, oil stick, and collage on paper mounted on canvas. 52h x 55w x 2d in.