An Abstract Alphabet: New Work by Stephen T. Johnson, Spencer Museum of Art, May 19 - August 5, 2007
Ice Cream Floats, 2005-2007
resin, monofilament, mirror, reverse osmosis water, tracing dye, lights, powder-coated steel, painted wooden bases, and electrical components
64 x 12 ½ x 12 x ½ inches each 162.6 x 31.8 x 31.8 cm each
“Indoors, in an institutional interior, is an installation of individually illuminated, isolated, immobilized, immersed, inverted identical insoluble imitation ice cream cones.”
From the series An Abstract Alphabet.
Wrapped Wishes, 2005-2007
wax, wool, objects, and wire
various sizes, from 12 x 16 inches to 29 x 22 inches (30.5 x 40.6 to 73.7 x 55.9 cm)
“White waxy wall hangings, wrinkled and wavy—one wonders what’s within.” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
Landscape, 2004-2007
oil and latex enamel on two wooden panels, with illuminated electric light, lightbulb and wooden ladder
18 x 228 inches (24 feet), (45.7 x 579.1 cm)
Latched to the left of a long, long painting layered with lemon yellow, lavender, and light red latex and lit by a little lightbulb, a lime green ladder leans. - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
Fast Food Frenzy, 2007-2008
fake French fries and acrylic paint on wooden panel
75 x 54 inches (190.5 x 137.2 cm)
Fourteen hundred and fifty-five fake French fries were flipped, flicked, and flung onto a full-size (75 x 54”) field of faint fuchsia.”
Meditation on the Memory of a Princess, 2002 - 2006
Nazdar printer’s ink, vinyl-coated nylon, molded plastic, nylon cording, 110 volt internal blower fan, and extension cord
108 x 108 x 144 inches (9 x 9 x 12 feet), glass marble 1 x 1 inches
Motionless, a man-made, monochromatic magenta mass mimics multiple mattresses and makes a massive mound near a mini mauve marble. (Look for the missing letter M in the letter R.)
Untitled, 2006 - 2007
oil on shaped wood
54 x 54 x 5 inches (137.2 x 137.2 x 12.7 cm)
“Underneath—an umber-colored circle. Upside—uneven, unequal, ultramarine blue undulates around an upside-down, underlined, uppercase, umlauted U.” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
Arrangement No. 1, 2002-2006
collage mounted on canvas
19 ½ x 10 inches (49.1 x 25.4 cm)
“Affixed across and around an angled letter A are an array of abstracted and assembled bits of advertisements, and apparent among them are apostrophes, ampersands, accents, and an asterisk.” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
Nocturne, 2006 - 2007
oil, ink, gouache, charcoal, pastel, and collage on paper mounted to canvas
25 x 24 inches (63.5 x 61 cm)
“Number nineteen is next to the letter N; nearby, the number nine neighbors a Naples yellow number ninety-nine.”
Evidence, 2004 - 2008
oil, ink, house paint, graphite, and collage on wood
21 x 24 inches (53.3 x 61 cm)
Examining the enigmatic elements in this work exposes an eagle, an ear, an elongated English red earthworm, an egg and dart motif (upper right edge), the Eiffel Tower, and an exclamation point!
Nocturne, 2007-2008
oil, ink, gouache, charcoal, pastel, and collage on paper mounted to canvas
25 x 24 inches (63.5 x 61 cm)
“Number nineteen is next to the letter N; nearby, the number nine neighbors a Naples yellow number ninety-nine.”
Hoopla!, 2008 - 2010
painted aluminum, steel wire rope, and hook
14 x 5 x 5 feet (426.7 x 152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Hordes of handmade, homogenously hued, hollow hula hoops in a huge heap hang and hover from a hook high up, where the letter H is hidden.
Camouflage, 2008
Plexiglas and commercially confected candies
48 inches diameter x 3 inches deep (121.9 cm diameter x 7.6 cm deep)
“Countless colorful candies consciously collected, crammed, crushed, and confined crowd a clear circular container filled to capacity.”
Rug No. 1 & Rug No. 2, 2007
rubber bands
72 inches in diameter (182.9 cm in diameter)
“Randomly placed, ready-made red round rubber bands, are to be removed by visitors as a remembrance, resulting in a remnant of the work” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet. Installation from An Abstract Alphabet: New Work: by Stephen Johnson, the Spencer Museum of Art, 2007
Dotty Diptych, 2007 - 2008
dominoes and enamel paint on two wooden panels
80 x 72 inches (203.2 x 182.9 cm)
Densely distributed dominoes, divided by dark and light dots on dual panels, disappear under drips of dramatically dashed paint dribbling downwards.
Recycled, 2003-2005
rubber bands, epoxy resin, wooden puzzle pieces, and Plexiglas
64 x 51 x 2 ½ inches (162.6 x 129.5 x 6.4 cm)
“Randomly placed, ready-made red and blue round rubber bands, rendered rigid by resin, reside in an upright rectangular receptacle.” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
Souvenir Series, 2005 - 2008
powder-coated steel
various sizes from 6 1/4 x 3 x 1 1/2 inches to 10 x 3 x 2 inches (15.9 x 7.6 x 3.8 cm to 25.4 x 7.6 x 5.1 cm)
Several sizes of shiny, solid, spoon-shaped, semiabstract sanguine, silver, and slate black sculptural statuettes standing on similar sleek-surfaced spheres, sunken in simple square stands with slits, cast soft, svelte, sinuous shadows.
Object, 2007
oil and collage on reworked, antique wooden table
34 x 22 x 16 inches (86.4 x 55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Offset on an overall opaque orange oval is one off-centered, off-white oblique.
Triptych, 2008
oil, gouache, collage, tape, thumbtacks, tracing paper, and wooden train on three wooden panels
28 1/2 x 55 1/2 inches (72.4 x 141 cm)
“Thick-textured titanium white paint. Torn tan tape. Tabs. Triangles. Thin transparent tracing paper. A tag. Two-dimensional typewritten text. Three tarnished thumbtacks. Ten teal blue thumbprints. A tilted T. A tiny three-dimensional toy to tease out trains of thought.”
Zippy, 2006-2008
oil, enamel, ink, pastel, crayons, charcoal, Zipatone, and collage on canvas
63 ½ x 49 inches (161.3 x 124.5 cm)
“Zigging and zagging through a zodiac, zinnia, and zebra zips a zigzag.” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
An Abstract Alphabet: New work by Stephen T. Johnson
Spencer Museum of Art
The University of Kansas
May 19th - August 5th, 2007
Blueberry Blues
oil, enamel, bicycle tire, bowl, and collage on canvas
78 x 68 inches
Beside a bisected, black, bumpy bicycle tire, a bunch of busy burgundy brushstrokes blurs into a blue background with a broken bowl below at the bottom.
Variations on a Vertical, 2007
oil, enamel, vinyl, metal vents and collage on aluminum panels
87 x 36 inches 221 x 91.4 cm
“Violet vents? Vibrantly vivid vermicelli? Vanishing vowels on verdant vinyl? A visually vertiginous vocalise?”
From the series An Abstract Alphabet.
Keepsake, 2008
oil, key, kapok, wooden knobs, and twine on canvas
80 x 76 inches (203.2 x 193 cm)
Knitted kitchen cloth, key, keyholes, kapok, knots, and knobs keep company near a king’s blue stripe on a king-size, kelly green canvas.
Pop Quiz, 2004 - 2008
photo print and collage on paper
11 1/2 x 29 inches (29.2 x 73.6 cm)
Packed into this panoramic picture are: Pancakes. Potato chips. Pencils. Pale pink paper clips. Photo-realistic peas. Peanuts. Popcorn. A pinwheel. A plug. A plastic peeing putto. A portrait of a parrot in profile. A pen point. Polka-dots. Peacock feathers. Puzzle pieces. Purple paint pouring, pouring…period!
Fête, 2006
acrylic, gouache, ink, oil pastel and collage on paper mounted to board
4 x 3 1/2 inches (10.2 x 8.9 cm)
Painting and Collage
Untitled, 2003-2004
gouache, rubber band, sweetart, and collage on paper
10 x 8 1/2 inches (25.4 x 21.6 cm)
The Pearl, 2006
collage on paper mounted on board
3 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches (8.3 x 7 cm)
Painting and Collage
Ocean II, 2005
oil and collage on wood panel
11 ½ x 8 1/2 inches (29.9 x 21.6 cm)
Painting and Collage
Untitled, 2006
Ink, coffee, thread, eraser bit, sweetart, glassine and collage on paper
27 x 19 3/4 inches (68.6 x 50.2 cm)
Painting and Collage
Yum Yum
Oil, enamel, pastel, fabric, photographic reproductions, and collage on canvas
73 x 64 inches
Yams and yellow yolk on a yo-yo with yellow ochre-colored yarn. Yes!
Golden Sections
gouache, graphite, glitter, gunpowder, gesso, glassine, and collage on paper mounted on panel
26 ½ x 40 ½ inches
“Gradations of green, gray, and gold geometric groupings rendered with gouache, graphite, glitter, granulated gunpowder, and glue generate glimpses into golden ratios and the gamut of Greek thought.”
Night Shift, 2006-2010
oil, enamel, charcoal and collage on canvas
55 x 54 inches (139.7 x 137.2 cm)
Painting and Collage
Tricky, 2005
gouache and collage on paper mounted on board
4 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches (10.4 x 12.1 cm)
Painting and Collage
Quiet Time Quilt, 2003-2005
quilted cotton fabric
80 x 60 inches (queen-size), (203.2 x 152.4 cm)
“Queen-size quilt quartered by quadrants, with quadrilaterals, quotation marks, and question marks, invites queries as to queens, quilts, and quietude.” - Caption from the series An Abstract Alphabet
Wild Orange, 2006
oil, ink, graphite and collage on wood panel
11 ½ x 8 1/2 inches (29.9 x 21.6 cm)
Painting and Collage
King, 2001
gouache and collage on paper mounted on board
5 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches (13.3 x 25.7 cm)
Mural study for DeKalb Improvisation, 2001-2004
Location: South Mezzanine, DeKalb Avenue Subway Station, Brooklyn, NY
See Public art DeKalb Improvisation
Queen, 2001
gouache and collage on paper mounted on board
7 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches (18.4 x 24.8 cm)
Mural study for DeKalb Improvisation, 2001-2004
Location: South Mezzanine, DeKalb Avenue Subway Station, Brooklyn, NY
Ocean I, 2005
oil and collage on wood panel
11 ½ x 8 1/2 inches (29.9 x 21.6 cm)
Painting and Collage
Literal Abstractions - Paintings and Collages
Sculptures, Accumulations and Installations
For the past eight years I have been exploring the English dictionary, selectively choosing and organizing particular words from each letter of the alphabet and, based solely on the meanings of the words, developing a visual work of art. I took ordinary objects and made them unfamiliar, removing functionality in order to reveal their potential metaphorical associations, which can lead in turn to overlapping and sometimes paradoxical meanings. I call these individual works “literal abstractions” and the ongoing series An Abstract Alphabet.
Abstractions - Paintings and Collages, 2001 - 2010
Alphabet City
City By Numbers
Figurative Work
Early work, 1984 - 1988
Early work, 1984 - 1988
Figurative Work, 1989 - 1999
Jambalaya, 2007 - 2008
aluminum, steel, vinyl, rubber, and plastics
19 x 13 x 6 inches (48.3 x 33 x 15.2 cm)
Jam-packed juxtapositions of jagged, jutting, jammed and jumbled junk joyfully and judiciously joined.