Jerico Contemporary is pleased to present our third solo show with Australian artist Matthew Graeme Johnson ‘Ways Of Seeing'. Showing exclusively online, the exhibition will open on Thursday 16th September and continue through to Saturday 9th October 2021. ‘Ways Of Seeing' extends on Johnson's signature oeuvre, bringing a collection of five new large-scale works to the surface. Photographed on Dharawal country, where Sydney and the Royal National Park meet, the exhibition is centred around the sensorial experience of gazing out to sea. Layered, sweeping depictions of a swell in constant flux craft an evocative narrative, led by compelling self-guided stories that occur when we take time to slow down, watch and listen.
Using his handheld camera, Johnson depicts glimmering images of the sunshine reflecting on the ocean’s surface; this time larger than ever before. “The sea commands the attention of all of our senses. I want my works to reflect this immersive sensation,” explains Johnson, “I am trying to convey the sublime of nature”. In his pursuit to capture ‘a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation’, the artist exposes the ocean’s unique visual poetry, illuminating unseen calligraphies that reveal vital, ever-present verses shared between sun and sea.
Experimenting with long, varied exposures, no two works are ever the same. Every photograph contains the traces of the ocean’s ever-changing direction, as well as the artist’s own fine muscle movements — from the varying intensity of his grip on the camera to the gentle tremor of his breath. Where inviting in perpetual motion is something that most photographers strive to emit from their work, Johnson embraces the unpredictability of his environment and medium. This breaking of traditional ‘rules’ leads the artist to new, expansive horizons, where the dynamism of the changing tides can be documented in their fluid state; achieving increasingly complex and arresting results.
Though chaotic lines may roam wildly throughout the works, subtlety is a virtue equally fundamental to Johnson’s practice. Influenced by the canon of great abstract painters, including Cy Twombly and Mark Rothko, his approach is minimal yet immediate, imbued with the urgent, fervent frequencies that transpire between humans and nature. Collectively, ‘Ways Of Seeing’ offers a meditation on these shifting qualities and on the space between darkness and light.