Jo Johnston
Jo Johnston (born 1972) comes originally from England, and in 2007 she moved to Berlin.
In 1992 she spent 2 years studying at Birmingham College of Art.
After moving to Berlin, she began to do small scale ink drawings mainly of Berlin street scenes. These were her way of exploring, and getting to know the city. She played around with some of these images in different scales and medium, which eventually led to large scale oil paintings of bicycles seen around Berlin. They are deliberately kept loose and playful, in contrast to the ink drawings. “The variety of bikes in Berlin is so that they almost seem to have personalities of their own! The patterns made by bikes and their shadows make for dynamic and cheerful paintings”.
Jo has done a lot of life drawing over the years, and has recently returned to drawing the figure in a new and ongoing series. These explore moods and feelings of a more personal nature. Human nature, all the phases of life with its wide range of emotions and energy and how we interact with one another interests Jo.
The ongoing series called “More Light” explores the connection between people, light and darkness. Jo uses Indian Inks on watercolour paper layered to emphasize the contrast between dark and light. She attempts to capture the elusive energy that our emotions give out, those that cannot be described but can be felt. Working on a more positive aspect of life is the series “Songs of Innocence” examining the energy surrounding children and teenagers at play, and their absolute absorption in activities. The series “In Free Fall” looks at the drama and intensity of emotions in a relationship that is not going well.
Alongside this work, Jo has a joint project with Marcel Kröner called ”The Little Window Galerie”. Allegedly the smallest art gallery in Berlin, where each month one piece work from different artists is exhibited in our “Schaufenster”. The little window is on the busy Berliner Strasse in Pankow for everyone to enjoy. We don’t make any money, preferring that the artworks are free for all to enjoy.
Ausstellungen:
2010 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2012 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2013 Kunstraum Ko, Berlin
2013 Kreativ E.V. Schönwalde-Glien OT
2013 Kladow Bibliotek
2013 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2013 Kunstraum Ko – Weihnachtsausstellung
2014 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2014 Galerie Pilango, Berlin
2014 Kunstraum Ko – Weihnachtsausstellung
2015 Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin und Schule für Artistik
2015 Weihnachtsausstellung, Stiftung Stärke, Berlin
2015 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2016 Kreativ E.V. Schönwalde-Glien OT
2016 Weihnachtsausstellung, Stiftung Stärke, Berlin
2017 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2018 Friedenskirche Charlottenburg, Berlin
2018 Galerie Terra, Berlin
2019 Galerie Terra Berlin
2020 Illustrations for English Nursery Rhymes translated by Marcel Kröner into German “Kindermund”
2020 Kreativ E.V. Schönwalde-Glien OT
2021 Illustrations for English Nursery Rhymes translated by Marcel Kröner into German “Groß & Klein”
Websites: www.johnston-x-kröner.de