April 2014

Nina Liu and Friends in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Michael Johnson

Nina Liu and Friends presents an exhibition of recent black and white photographs by Michael Johnson entitled, The Last Picture Show, on view from Apr. 4 through June 30, 2014. A reception will be held on Apr. 4, from 5-7pm.

The large format silver/gelatin prints in this exhibition feature subtle gradations of tone that range from white through multiple, seductive shades of gray and black. Johnson’s images invite the viewer to reflect upon the grandeur of the natural world, but they do not avoid documenting the impact of man through agriculture and other activities. Within each photograph Johnson masterfully uses texture, pattern and other formal elements to compose images that evoke the timeless quality of the American landscape.

For more than thirty-five years Johnson has been photographing the world around him. He has exhibited his work at galleries and museums across the country. Among the institutions that have collected his photographs are the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC; the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, IL; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston. Johnson also has exhibited his work internationally, and his photographs also are in the collections of Sprint, McDonald’s, Bank of America, MasterCard, the Hyatt Corporation, and many other corporations.

An article in the Los Angeles Times referred to Johnson as “one of the country’s premier landscape photographers.” Critics have said that his photographs “speak with an eloquence of vision and craft from bygone days,” and a review in the Chicago Sun-Times referred to “…a loamy strength, a solemn weight inside his pictures.”

For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 843/722-2724.

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