Rae Johnson
Two Women Night, 2017. Oil and graphite on canvas.
Artist Biography:
Rae Johnson (1953-2020) was a Canadian painter who lived and worked in Toronto. Johnson had been exhibiting her paintings since 1978. Her work reflected on the highs and lows of her own life, as well as her interest at the time. Johnson also works with reclaiming identity of women through the female gaze, and, in her 20s, made a discovery of herself as an artist when she connected the ideas of Carl Jung and Albert Einstein together - a collective consciousness linked to the concept of the curvature of space and time.
Night Games at Paradise, 1984. Oil on canvas.
“Painting can safely be explained as pleasant design and perceptual system. But sometimes we glimpse proof of the frailty of our contemporary belief in an orderly rational universe. This is when a painting can strike fear and loathing in our civilized composure. Painting as threat.”
-Rae Johnson, 1995 artist statement.
I Can Hear it Breathing, 1984. Oil on canvas.
I Close my Eyes, 1984. Oil on canvas.
Johnson’s Angel Paintings
Much of Johnson‘s work (especially her earlier work) uses symbols such as angels, monsters, and occasionally biblical figures to explore feminine archetypes both historically and contemporary. In 1983 Johnson was hospitalized for a viral form of arthritis. During her recovery, Johnson made a series of gouache paintings of hauntingly bare rooms, some of which are being visited by angelic figures.
Untitled #3, 1983. Gouache on watercolour paper.
Madonna with Sunglasses (Annunciation), 1982. Acrylic on canvas.
Winter Angel, 2018. Oil and graphite on canvas.
Angel in the Rivoli, 1983. Acrylic on canvas.
Angels in the Palace, 1983. Acrylic on canvas.
Drawing is an organic scan of the underworld. Drawing is the first place amorphous inklings congeal into objective form. Drawing mediates between the invisible interior world and the mechanistic physical perception of itself. Between Knowing and Seeing.
-Rae Johnson on the function of drawing
Scale
Johnson prefers to work on a large scale with both her paintings and drawings, which average about 4 feet in both their length and width. The size of Johnson’s work helps to create a larger presence and stronger viewer impact with her work - something that works to embody her critique of today’s age of false security with our constant use of digital devices.
Diner, Exit, Man-Belt, 2015. 40”x 48”. Graphite on gessoed canvas.
Happy Bar, 2015. 42”x 45”. Graphite on gessoed canvas.
Ruby Neri
Untitled, 2019. Ceramic with glaze. 56.5 x 35 x 34 in.
Artist Biography:
Ruby Neri (b.1970) is an American artist. Her work draws on historical and anthropological modes globally as well as west-coast traditions. Neri “depicts the human body as a porous instrument of pleasure, terror, and everything in between.” Neri combines her personal and street art identity in her creation of (primarily) ceramics and drawings.
Untitled (Dancing Women), 2018. Ceramic with glaze. 34.4 x 42 x 30 in.
Venus of Willendorf, c. 25,000 BCE. Oolitic limestone, 4.4 in. tall.
Untitled (Double Woman with Arms Raised), 2016. Ceramic with glaze, 22.8 x 14.3 x 12 in.
“It’s a visceral, personal thing... I originally imagined the vertical figures as a handle for a basket, but their proportions transformed them into something else, and it’s rather phallic. But then they’re also like fallopian tubes. The reclining woman has a hole in her stomach and it’s as if she’s being taken over by her children. I feel like I have ideas beforehand—about the female body—but they’re altered in the finished product.”
Untitled, 2019. Oil pastel on paper, 29.8 x 22.2 in.
Untitled, 2019. Oil pastel on paper. 29.8 x 22.2 in.
Femininity
Neri’s work has been critiqued as being over-sexualised depictions of the female figure. However, Neri argues that this is not the point of her work/her style, but rather that she is speaking to “the various facets of being a woman, inspired by her own experience as a mother, lover, daughter, and maker.”
I think this is a really important distinction, and, despite me not enjoying her work aesthetically, I respect the meaning behind her pieces and their impact.
Untitled, 2019. Ceramic with glaze. 58 x 36.5 x 45.3 in.
Party People, 2015. Oil on canvas over panel, 48 x 42”.
Women Flying Away, 2021. Ceramic with glaze. 43 x 46 x 33.3 in.
Woman with Children, 2014. Oil on paper, 14 x 20”.
In a sense, these vessels and figures are self-referential, but in a non-biographical way. They are idealizations and visions based on personal experience—a reflection of the multifaceted, intense energy of everyday living. — Ruby Neri