Los Angeles-based Dion Johnson makes hard-edged, abstract paintings with dynamic color fields and lines. In his works, bold, contrasting swathes droop down and slide across his canvases, existing simultaneously as line, shape, and color. HIGH-DEF COLOR PHASE features the latest works from Johnson’s studio. In the introductory essay for the exhibition’s catalog, art critic David Pagel gives new language to what makes Johnson’s latest body of work so special. Pagel states, “Color has always been integral to what Dion Johnson does as an artist and his new paintings are no exception: They treat color as something so unique and powerful that words cannot come close to naming the peculiar, idiosyncratic colors he mixes in his studio, much less capturing the one-of-a-kind nature of each of his handcrafted shades, tones, and tints.”

Los Angeles-based Dion Johnson makes hard-edged, abstract paintings with dynamic color fields and lines. In his works, bold, contrasting swathes droop down and slide across his canvases, existing simultaneously as line, shape, and color. HIGH-DEF COLOR PHASE features the latest works from Johnson’s studio. In the introductory essay for the exhibition’s catalog, art critic David Pagel gives new language to what makes Johnson’s latest body of work so special. Pagel states, “Color has always been integral to what Dion Johnson does as an artist and his new paintings are no exception: They treat color as something so unique and powerful that words cannot come close to naming the peculiar, idiosyncratic colors he mixes in his studio, much less capturing the one-of-a-kind nature of each of his handcrafted shades, tones, and tints.”

Los Angeles-based Dion Johnson makes hard-edged, abstract paintings with dynamic color fields and lines. In his works, bold, contrasting swathes droop down and slide across his canvases, existing simultaneously as line, shape, and color. HIGH-DEF COLOR PHASE features the latest works from Johnson’s studio. In the introductory essay for the exhibition’s catalog, art critic David Pagel gives new language to what makes Johnson’s latest body of work so special. Pagel states, “Color has always been integral to what Dion Johnson does as an artist and his new paintings are no exception: They treat color as something so unique and powerful that words cannot come close to naming the peculiar, idiosyncratic colors he mixes in his studio, much less capturing the one-of-a-kind nature of each of his handcrafted shades, tones, and tints.”

Los Angeles-based Dion Johnson makes hard-edged, abstract paintings with dynamic color fields and lines. In his works, bold, contrasting swathes droop down and slide across his canvases, existing simultaneously as line, shape, and color. HIGH-DEF COLOR PHASE features the latest works from Johnson’s studio. In the introductory essay for the exhibition’s catalog, art critic David Pagel gives new language to what makes Johnson’s latest body of work so special. Pagel states, “Color has always been integral to what Dion Johnson does as an artist and his new paintings are no exception: They treat color as something so unique and powerful that words cannot come close to naming the peculiar, idiosyncratic colors he mixes in his studio, much less capturing the one-of-a-kind nature of each of his handcrafted shades, tones, and tints.”

Los Angeles-based Dion Johnson makes hard-edged, abstract paintings with dynamic color fields and lines. In his works, bold, contrasting swathes droop down and slide across his canvases, existing simultaneously as line, shape, and color. HIGH-DEF COLOR PHASE features the latest works from Johnson’s studio. In the introductory essay for the exhibition’s catalog, art critic David Pagel gives new language to what makes Johnson’s latest body of work so special. Pagel states, “Color has always been integral to what Dion Johnson does as an artist and his new paintings are no exception: They treat color as something so unique and powerful that words cannot come close to naming the peculiar, idiosyncratic colors he mixes in his studio, much less capturing the one-of-a-kind nature of each of his handcrafted shades, tones, and tints.”

Los Angeles-based Dion Johnson makes hard-edged, abstract paintings with dynamic color fields and lines. In his works, bold, contrasting swathes droop down and slide across his canvases, existing simultaneously as line, shape, and color. HIGH-DEF COLOR PHASE features the latest works from Johnson’s studio. In the introductory essay for the exhibition’s catalog, art critic David Pagel gives new language to what makes Johnson’s latest body of work so special. Pagel states, “Color has always been integral to what Dion Johnson does as an artist and his new paintings are no exception: They treat color as something so unique and powerful that words cannot come close to naming the peculiar, idiosyncratic colors he mixes in his studio, much less capturing the one-of-a-kind nature of each of his handcrafted shades, tones, and tints.”

Dion Johnson’s paintings combine and explore dynamic opposites: expansiveness and compression, surface and depth, and darkness and light. Gradient color fields are juxtaposed to and interwoven with planes of precise hardedge abstraction. These color fades are both intimate and vast – they may reflect internal moods with wandering thoughts and insightful realizations, or they may suggest vivid sunsets on Mercury or Mars with chemical skies and radiant perspectives. The hardedge shapes seem to reach up and stretch down; their elongated curves, interlocking contours, and bold colors allude to kinetic sensations and evolving environments.

Johnson attended Yale Norfolk Summer School of Music and Art, received his BFA from The Ohio State University and MFA from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA. His work has been reviewed and featured in articles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, ART News, Art Forum and others. His work is in public collections such as The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, The Capital Group Companies, Los Angeles, CA, Creative Artists Agency, CA, Pizutti Collection Columbus, OH, Progressive Corporation and many more.