Tim Johnson is a Sydney artist whose career began in the 1960’s. His artistic practices influenced by conceptual art, encompass an extensive range of media, from performance art, live music, photography and painting and have been at the forefront of contemporary art practice in Australia. He is important in the debate of post modern cross–cultural referencing and appropriation as well as discussions about Australia’s interconnection with Asia and Eastern philosophy in comparison to our Western heritage.
Tim Johnson
Often described as ‘floating worlds,’ Tim Johnson’s extraordinarily compelling paintings embrace the spiritual iconography of a range of cultures. With his own unique artistic language, his paintings are an infusion of pulsating, floating and shimmering landscapes, fields of colour, dots and multi cultural iconography, mythology and imagery. In combination the visual energy and infusion of Australian Aboriginal Papunya dot painting, Buddhist, Hindu, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese symbols from traditional and contemporary culture is somewhat transporting or transcendental, to a different consciousness or metaphysical field, ‘floating world’ or ‘Buddhist Pure Land’. Cross cultural referencing in Johnson’s paintings is implemented through a process of intellectual involvement, respect, collective dialogue and collaboration with artists from different cultural and religious traditions, a result of Johnson’s belief in an art that is induced from life experience.
“I’ve immersed myself in a world of art styles in a number of ways, through travel, study, the information media and from personal contact. The paintings reference a reality that is a bit apart from the modern, materialist, western world. By looking at indigenous, traditional and religious art I found new ways to paint and a new sense of purpose and possibility.” Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson has been extensively exhibited in Biennales, Documenta IX and has had a major survey exhibition in the Art Gallery of NSW, 2009
Born in Sydney in 1947. Lives and works in Sydney.
Education
1966-1970
- University of New South Wales
- University of Sydney
1997-8
- Australia Council Fellowship
1999
- Mosman Art Prize
- Sceggs Redlands Art Prize
Selected Recent Solo Exhibitions
2021
- Creed, Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
2020
- Empathy, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
017
- Metamodernism, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2016
- Conspiracies, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2015
- Open Source, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
2014
- Otherkin, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
- Conceptual Work/New Painting, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
- Eye to Eye, Nancy Sever Gallery
2013
- The Luminescent Ground, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
2011
- Supernatural, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2010
- Worlds Apart, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
- Emulation, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
- Tim Johnson: Painting Ideas, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
2009
- Embedded, Milani Gallery, brisbane
- Tim Johnson: Painting Ideas, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Emporium, Lister Gallery, Perth
2008
- Graphomania, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2007
- Tim Johnson, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
- Anomalous, Lister Gallery, Perth
- Nurture, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2006
- Punk Paintings and Prints, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2005
- Imitating Art, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
- Full Moon, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2004
- Serindia, Mori Gallery, Sydney
2003
- Tim Johnson, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles
- Tim Johnson, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
2000
- Collaborations, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
- Pure Land, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
Selected Recent Group Exhibitions
2021
- Tree Story, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2018
- in site: process, performance, documentation, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
- Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney
2017
- Australian Collection (permanent exhibition), Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
2016
- sugar spin: you, me, art, and everything, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Beyond the tower: 40 years and counting, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
2015
- Art as Verb, Art Space, Sydney/Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2013
- Australian Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
- Four Corners of the World, Hine Collection, Seoul, Korea
- Domenik Mersch Gallery at Galerie Patrick Ebensperger, Berlin
- Group Exhibition — Haute école d’art et design, Genève, Geneva
2012
- The Unseen, Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, Guangdong
- Recent Acquisitions, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Melbourne
- Negotiating this world: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria
- Less is More, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
- all our relations: 18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney
- Volume One: MCA Collection: Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2011
- Ten Years of Contemporary Art, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Tell Me Tell Me, National Art School, Sydney
- New Psychedelia, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
2010
- Roundabout, City Gallery, Wellington
- We Call them Pirates Out Here, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- 100 Years: Highlights from the University of Queensland Art Collection, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
- Hong Kong Art Fair, Hong Kong
2009
- Avoiding Myth & Message: Australian artists and the literary world, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- +/- - MUMA -, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2008
- The Visitors, Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith NSW
- Drawn In, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
- An Ever Expanding Universe, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth
- Open Air, Portraits in the landscape, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2007
- Bloodlines, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, NSW
- The Luminescent Ground, Wollongong Regional Gallery, Wollongong
- Multiplicity: Prints and Multiples, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- Smile of the Buddha, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra
2006
- Lives and Times, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2004
- Queensland White/Light, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
2003
- MCA Unpacked II, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968-2002, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Parallel Worlds, Tim Johnson and My Le Thi, UTS Gallery, Sydney
2001
- So you wanna be a rock star, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
- The Mandala Project, Gallery 4A, Asian Australian Arts Centre, Sydney
- Three Views of Emptiness: Buddhism and the Art of Tim Johnson, Lindy Lee & Peter Tyndall, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
- Art/Music: rock, pop, techno, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2000
- Flight Patterns, MOCA, Los Angeles
- From Appreciation to Appropriation, Adelaide Arts Festival, Adelaide
- Project 2/2000, The University of Sydney, Sydney
Selected Collections
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
- University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
- Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane
- University of New South Wales, Sydney
