Iskra Johnson
A R T I S T
My art practice is rooted in the traditions of contemplative art, influenced greatly by my years as a student of Asian calligraphy and my ongoing design career as a calligrapher and letterform artist. I use many different media, but in all of them I attend closely to the language of mark-making and surface.
As principal of Iskra Design I have been working with the alphabet for many years, providing custom letterform solutions for book covers, logotypes, and package branding. In the first decade of my career I immersed myself in Asian calligraphy, haiga, T’ai Chi and sumie painting, studying with Lucy Liu, John Leong and Sensei Ishii among other teachers. After this period of Eastern influence I went to the University of Washington, completing a degree in painting with a secondary focus on printmaking (BFA). I draw inspiration from the interplay between the contemplative practices of Asian art and a perhaps more Western need for invention and uncharted chaos.
I bring my background in calligraphy into all of my work
Although my first love is printmaking, due to early exposure to solvents I have been unable to work in a traditional printmaking studio or with oil-based inks, and this has pushed me to devise my own methods to create the look and process of printmaking without a press. In much of my work I approach my surface as though it is a stone or metal plate, but the “plate” becomes the final piece of art, reflecting the same characteristics of mark-making found in etching and lithography. I love surfaces that are bitten and etched, indirect and calligraphic mark making, and experimental processes of monoprint which embed an element of surprise. I also adore flat screaming color and the graphic qualities of serigraph and stencils. I move between visual languages, always looking for an ambiguity of pictorial space and unexpected juxtapositions.
For the past five years I have focused primarily on how the atmosphere of emotion intersects with architectural structure. In my series about construction sites and the street I use contemporary digital photography, imaging software and found and made surface to explore nostalgia, loss, place and displacement in the rapidly changing urban environment. For me Photoshop is like playing jazz: it is the ultimate tool for improvisation. It allows me to deconstruct images into layers of light and color, line and shape, and reassemble them into imaginary worlds. The way the layers interact with each other opens up a new kind of pictorial composition unavailable in any other medium.
The physical form of my digitally composed work may be archival pigment print, transfer print, or mixed media. In digitally printed work my goal is to produce a work on paper, an artifact incorporating all the finesse and obsession with surface of traditional printmaking. The resulting images have a mysterious hybrid quality that is often taken for silkscreen or lithography.
German Etching, my favorite paper, beloved for its rich surface and the way it holds ink.
Recently I have begun a shift away from printmaking towards more direct processes, using mixed media on Venetian plaster and pure painting. In going back to what are in some ways traditional image media I am still very interested in what I think of as “photographicness.” This is a relatively modern phenomena, in which photography, which originally set out to imitate life and “painting from life,” has now become our visual reference point as a global culture. How does a way of seeing that is mediated by incredibly complex technology enter into our psychology as a collective/yet personal emotional filter? How does it influence our sense of what is “real,” “personal” or “authentic?” How do the qualities of surface in the daily interface of screens, phones, camera and facsimile begin to define what is beauty in other media? These are some of the questions guiding my work.
If you are interested in a studio visit or in purchasing prints or paintings you may write to me through the contact form in the navigation bar or email me at iskra (at) iskrafineart.com. My work may also be seen and purchased through Seattle Art Museum Gallery.
My office, where the digital alchemy happens.
SOLO/TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2018 The Harbor, Taste at SAM, Seattle Washington (upcoming)
2018 Industrial Pastorale, Perry & Carlson, Mt. Vernon, Washington
2014 Excavations: The Big Dig & Other Stories, Zeitgeist, Seattle, Washington
2012 The Black and White Show, Fraker/Scott, (two-person), Seattle, Washington
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Industrial Strength, Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Seattle Washington (Three-person)
2017 Splash, Chittendon Locks Centennial, Seattle, WA
2017 Make America Create Again, COCA, Seattle, Washington
2017 The Winter Show, Museo Gallery, Langley, Washington
2016 Tech and the Democratization of Art, Galvanize, Seattle Washington
2016 Contemporary Printmakers, Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Seattle Washington
2016 Confluence: The Duwamish River Project, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle Washington
2016 Annual Artist Exhibition, Kirkland Art Center, Seattle, Washington
2016 The Garden Show, Museo Gallery, Langley, Washington
2015 Seattle Seen, Linda Hodges Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2015 Zeitgeist, Arts at the Port, Anacortes, Washington, Stefano Catalani, curator
2015 Waterways, Alexis Hotel, Seattle, Washington
2014 Making & Breaking, Linda Hodges, Seattle, Washington
2014 Any Day, Artists on Death, Steele Gallery, Gage Academy, Seattle, Washington
2014 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, 14 new architectural works for May exhibition
2013 World/City: Exploring the Architecture of Global Relationships, Seattle Architectural Foundation, Seattle, Washington
2013 New Media: Digital Art, Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Bainbridge Island, Washington
2013 Painters Under Pressure: A Decade of Discussion, Phinney Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2013 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, new architectural images for February Exhibition
2013 Watercolor Exhibit, Steele Gallery at Gage Academy, Seattle, Washington
2013 The Bleak View, Prographica Fine Works on Paper, Seattle, Washington
2012 Contemplations of Nature, Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2011 Icons, Fraker/Scott, Seattle, Washington
2010 Safe Harbor, Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, Washington
2010 ArtSpace Printmaking and Photography Exhibition, Richmond, Virginia
2010 Seattle Print Arts, Patricia Cameron Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2009 Printmaking Exhibition, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan, China
2008 The Art of Democracy, Two Wall Gallery, Vashon, Washington
2008 Collective Visions Gallery Washington State Juried Competition, Bremerton, Washington
Studio photos and portrait by Ben Calhoun