Luke Johnson // Close and Distant Reading

Luke Johnson is Minnesota-born artist, working in print media and drawing. In his work, Johnson draws from the stories and unintended afterlives of archival materials, responding to the ways objects embody, or fail to embody, their history and intent. Using photographic printmaking methods to record the marks left by time upon once-valued objects and subsequently developing the work through acts of drawing, Johnson blurs the distinctions between the qualities of the camera and the subjective marks reinforced by hand. The resulting works pose a series of visually transmitted questions: what does it mean to leave a mark? Does it matter if such marks are traceable to their sources? And what does it mean to consider those marks, passed down through time by those who came before us, which may no longer be legible? Johnson received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his MFA from the University of Alberta. He is currently a visiting assistant professor of art at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Opening Reception: Friday, Jun 5th // 6:30PM