Press Release:
Bethany Johnson
Safe Keeping
November 24, 2020 – January 16, 2021
Moody Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new sculptures by Bethany Johnson. Safe Keeping marks Johnson’s forth solo exhibition at the gallery since 2012. Collages from the series We Live on a Planet will be exhibited alongside the sculptures. Johnson began working on this new series at the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency in Joshua Tree, California in the summer of 2020. Safe Keeping is on view in the gallery through January 16, 2021, as well as online at moodygallery.com, and is featured within the current Group Exhibition of Gallery Artists.
The artist states- “Reminiscent of geologic formations, and appearing perhaps at home within a cabinet of natural curiosities, the intimate sculptures of Safe Keeping offer an inconclusive and multi-layered meditation on deep time, material metamorphosis, and the anthropogenic land- making of landfills.
These dimensional works are first assembled composed by cutting and stacking collected waste materials, including plastics, paper, aluminum, fabric, foam, cardboard and wood. Tightly bound together by a hidden, internal armature of screws and bolts, the final sculptural forms are then trimmed and sanded. The works’ satin surfaces evoke the hand-worn patina of worry stones, and the handheld scale suggests the intimacy of a beloved keepsake. As a quiet meditation on the damage of material consumption on our natural environment, the works of Safekeeping offer a new alchemical life to otherwise discarded waste.” -Bethany Johnson
Bethany Johnson (b. La Porte, IN, 1985) currently lives and works in Austin, TX. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Kalamazoo College, MI in 2007 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from The University of Texas at Austin in 2011. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Berlin, and in Texas at Texas State Galleries, San Marcos; The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas; Austin Museum of Art - Laguna Gloria, Austin; The Wright Gallery at Texas A&M University, College Station; UTSA Art Gallery at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Galveston Arts Center, Galveston; the Courtyard Gallery, Austin; and the Creative Research Laboratory, Austin, among other venues. Johnson has held residencies at Joshua Tree Highlands, Joshua Tree, CA (2020); Institut für Alles Mögliche; Berlin, Germany (2019); Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT (2019 and 2010); Wild Basin Creative Research Center, Austin, TX (2019); Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, Laceyville, PA (2013); and Denkmalschmiede Höfgen, Grimma, Germany (2011). Since 2017 Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX.
The gallery is open by appointment only. To arrange a viewing of the exhibition please call or email the gallery at 713-526-9911 or info@moodygallery.com.