Hollybush Gardens – Claudette Johnson: Still Here

Hollybush Gardens is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works on paper by Claudette Johnson. This body of work continues Johnson’s engagement with painting the Black subject, involving a considered process of live sittings to create complex paintings of imposing scale and expressive detail. By presenting individual subjects as occupying an undefined context, as Johnson has developed with paintings of women since the early 1980s, Johnson encourages a reading of the Black figure beyond the conventions of portraiture, advocating instead for the sheer presence of the individual.