Larry Johnson's creations possess an inventive edge, but with his latest compilation, Experimental Fantasy, admirers receive a full-blown gallery that shoots straight from his picturesque subconscious.
Johnson's familiar themes (i.e. his persistent patterns) permeate this 99-page hardback volume and include his favored pigments of pink, blue, purple, yellow and green, which he drives into directions that lure and mesmerize, all rendered through stencils, markers, felt-tip and glitter pens. The culminations are surreal, but then the evident, varied tools ensure his eclectic outcomes.
Though I have tended to favor Johnson's hand imagery in the past, in this case, it's his horse homages that hook me, though perhaps that's due to my continued enthrallment with his popular, Horseman character (who, by the way, appears in this volume). Nonetheless, I appreciate the adventurous sense of freedom his horses imply.
In truth, freedom is the common motif of this exploratory triumph, for it thrives in the artist's silhouetted humans, fish, birds, bats, blooming flowers, reaching branches and cosmic spheres. In other words, there's always an insinuated sweep toward salvation in Experimental Fantasy, met by an insistence that one must be true to oneself and evolve however one wishes in life. I appreciate that optimism.
I believe you will, too. Experimental Fantasy is an artistic investment you won't regret.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HBCLFH6X?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
No comments:
Post a Comment