AARON JOHNSON: WE ALL SHINE ON

“It feels to me like the paint itself has embodied a force of nature.”

Luminous beings and glowing orbs of colour populate Aaron Johnson’s most recent work, in which mysterious figures emerge from experimentation with the free flow of paint. Ethereal shapes come to life through the careful addition of feet, teeth or multiple eyes, while the psychedelic palette of contrasting shades infuses each canvas with energy. Aaron Johnson: We All Shine On is an uplifting experience of colour and form which celebrates our interconnectedness and environment.

FIGURATIVE COLOUR FIELD PAINTINGS

“One of the most vital points about this new series is that I’m riding a line between figuration and abstraction,” explains the artist. Works such as Starlight (2022) or Ascension (2022), both featured in Johnson’s solo exhibition at La Térmica, Malaga in 2024, depict multiple characters or gatherings, while the artist’s more recent paintings allow greater space for colour abstraction, centring on two-figure compositions and arrangements of vibrant orbs.

“There’s an optical experience specific to each orb and I’m really interested in the mystery and power of that,” says Johnson, who acknowledges the influence in his practice of colour field painters such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis. In Moon Monks (2025) or Earth Angel (2025) the orbs take precedence, with figures implied only through the presence of multiple eyes or mouths, while two-figure works including The Light Within Me Sees The Light Within You (2025) or Walking In Your Light (2025) reference interaction and togetherness.

Experimentation, fluidity and the unexpected

“I’m someone who approaches the studio as an experimental laboratory, figuring out ways that I can be expressive with the paint that make sense to me,” summarises Johnson. Over the past 20 years, he has employed a variety of techniques, including reverse painting with acrylic polymers, staining, blotting, and even working with discarded socks. Since 2018, he has explored the possibilities of wet canvas, harnessing the dynamism of water, textile and acrylics in combination.

Johnson uses pouring but also paintbrushes mounted on sticks, water sprays and movement. “The canvas is so wet that the brushstrokes don’t only bleed, they actually drift,” explains the artist, who finds the unpredictability of his practice compelling. Working with stretched canvas enables him to raise and tilt the works, channelling the relative fluidity of different paints and pigments. Bright magentas, oceanic blues or luminous yellows contrast with forest greens and night-time shades in paintings born of an intuitive, action-reaction process which Johnson likens to a dance.

Nature, interconnectedness and light

Luminosity is a defining feature of this exhibition, which borrows its title from John Lennon’s single Instant Karma! (We All Shine On), released in 1970. Johnson’s wet-canvas approach recognises that “paint has its own intuition,” giving rise to diaphanous figures that glow and vibrate.

Connecting with ancient animist traditions, Johnson associates some of these beings with our natural surroundings, for example in River Spirit, Tree Spirit (2025) or Mountain Kings (2025). Others, such as the protagonists of Star Travellers (2025) or We Wait For You (2025) seem to hail from more distant parts of the universe. To Johnson, these characters’ multiple eyes suggest that they “exist in another dimension, see into other realities.”

Johnson embraces the liquid dynamism of paint to meditate on the forces of nature, imagination and interdependence. Each work in Aaron Johnson: We All Shine On is an optical and emotional encounter which, as the artist suggests, opens up “a realm of experience that feels potentially spiritual.”

Biography

Born in Minnesota and now resident in Los Angeles, Johnson originally majored in Molecular Cellular Biology before earning his MFA at Hunter College, New York. His work has been exhibited at venues including MASS MoCA and the American University Art Museum, Washington DC, and features in prestigious collections such as MoMA New York, the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation in Los Angeles and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. His first institutional solo show was held at La Térmica, Malaga in 2024.