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Survival through figurization (white) 2016

Self-taught artist and musician Chris Johanson calls his paintings “neighborhood” or “documentary” pictures, which capture the mental climate and tensions of the contemporary moment. From his early days of making cartoonish markings on the streets of San Francisco’s Mission District, Johanson’s practice has expanded to include paintings, sculptures, and installations that address complicated social, political, and environmental themes through simplified figurative forms and exuberant abstraction, with an approachable and ironic wit.