by Anne Gabriel
A small exhibition of works in the back room of Luis De Jesus, a gallery that often shows stronger artists matched with weaker ones—in this instance the weaker is Kelly Johnson. Kelly Johnson, known for abstracting paintings has offered a new body of work of painted lines and splotches on mesh on top of different painted lines and splotches on the panel beneath.
If it sounds uninteresting that’s because it is. All of the works, save one, read as studies of lines and process. A prime example is Daydream (2024-25), a panel painted with diagonal lines, and then a grid, overlaid with a mesh-like material with different diagonal lines with the addition of skin-hued splotches of paint.
“How much tape can I add to a panel, paint on it, and then remove?” seems to be the active question along with, “What if i make the lines go in a different direction and then add glitter and splats?” Johnson seems to believe that this question—enacted on a variety of substrates—is interesting enough to captivate a viewer. Dear Kelly, it’s not.
I would like these so much more if they all looked like, or took direction from Somewhere Between I (2024), a painting composed of a bottom panel painted with black lines and rectangles of glowing yellow resembling a scene of urban nightlife—overlaid with a mesh like layer that is covered with random blue blobs and a grid reminiscent of window panes—the combination creating a dirty window view into a city at night. This one painting out of all on exhibition—has an idea that is more than just process. Do more of that.
Image: Staff