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Iskra in Under the Influence, Opening December 5 at SAM Gallery

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Plum Wine Iskra SAM Show
“Plum Wine,” limited edition print on panel, 24 x 36 © Iskra Johnson
You are invited to the opening of

Under the Influence

at SAM Gallery
December 5, 6 – 7:30 PM
Seattle Art Museum, 1300 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101

Artists influenced by Asia are featured in SAM Gallery’s final show of the year. I am excited to be part of this group of artists including Deborah Bell, Alfred Harris, Laura Van Horne and Junko Yamamoto. Each of us is influenced by Asia in very different ways, involving surface, paper, collage, markmaking and photographic innovations. Join in this festive opening and celebrate the Asian influence on Northwest Contemporary art.

My work in this exhibit will show a new way of presenting my work on panel. The limited edition prints are meticulously mounted and sealed in layers of cold wax medium, which creates a subtle hand crafted sheen. Without traditional framing the work becomes an immediate experience of surface and color, unimpeded by reflections. The surfaces are hard to photograph, but here is a capture in the studio showing “As Above So Below,” one of the works that will be shown. If you would like to preview and reserve before the opening I will have these pieces in the studio through next Tuesday before they are delivered to the gallery. Give me a shout and I would be happy to show you in person. There will be an edition of 5 available for each piece, framed traditionally in plexiglass and brushed silver, or mounted in cold wax on panel. All sales through SAM Gallery.

Archival print mounted on panel by Iskra
Print mounted on panel with cold wax
“The Heron,” archival pigment print mounted on panel © Iskra Johnson

 I look forward to seeing you to celebrate the launch of the winter holidays!

Invitation to Seattle Arts North Studio Tour, October 12 & 13, 10-5 PM

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Summer Storm Archival Print by Iskra
“Summer Storm,” Archival Pigment Print on German Etching © Iskra Johnson

 

Please join Laura Brodax and me at Modern Glaze, in our first time as part of Seattle’s

Arts North Studio Tour
October 12th and 13th, 10 AM – 5 PM
Studio 10 | Modern Glaze
14800 Westminster Way, Shoreline, WA 98133

Visit 10 North Seattle Studios in one weekend, and see a wide range of beautiful art, glass, jewelry and ceramics from some of Seattle’s best artists. Click these links to download the Studio Brochure or Map.

I will have a wide selection of prints, framed and unframed, as well as mixed media work on Venetian Plaster. Laura will be showing her highly collectable ceramic ware and photographic works. We are both photo based artists, but we have taken the medium in very different directions. I love the opportunity for our work to be shown together, and look forward to meeting new friends and old.

Brodax blue platter Arts North Studio Tour

Brodax Modern Glaze platters
Laura Brodax Ceramic Ware at Modern Glaze

 

Arts North Studio Tour: Save the Date!

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Modern Glaze studio North Seattle Arts Tour

Please save the date for the Arts North Studio Tour in Seattle this October 12th and 13th!  Ceramic artist and photographer Laura Brodax has opened her new (and spectacular) studio space at the edge of the Broadview neighborhood, and will be hosting me as her guest artist for our first time on this tour.

Check out Modern Glaze on Instagram to see what the fuss is all about. I have admired Laura’s photography and ceramics for many years, and it is an honor to show with her. I will be displaying unframed prints of various sizes as well as some larger framed works and mixed media panels. Below are some of Laura’s ceramic works incorporating her photography, collage and serigraph.

Laura Brodax Ceramics
Laura Ceramics, courtesy of Modern Glaze

 

Iskra Studio Sale 2019
“As Above, So Below,” archival pigment print, ©Iskra Johnson

Be sure to visit the Arts North Studio Tour website and Facebook for a preview of work and a map of all 10 studios. Modern Glaze is located at 14800 Westminster Way N, Shoreline, WA 98133. Tour hours, 10-5 October 12th and 13th. I hope to see you there!

Northwest Mystic Summer

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Lummi Blues, archival pigment print by Iskra
Lummi Blues, archival pigment print by Iskra

Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste.

It’s what everything else isn’t.

–Theodore  Roethke

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest summer, which arrived a few hours ago, sneaking in with a sun hat and a good book while the rest of the country fries in humid torment. A bit late, but divine. It’s hard to stay in the studio when the garden calls, begging me to count the lily pads and swoon in the golden light of the locust tree.

Yet, here I am, indoors, attempting to translate the outdoors after recent travels in landscape. The new work for SAM Gallery’s November show “Artists Influenced by Asia,” is directly influenced by the immediacy of nature here along the Salish Sea. A few weeks ago I went up to Samish Island with two dear friends, painters Chris Gedye and Patty Haller to see Patty’s new studio. It was complete bliss. We woke up in the morning to low tide’s iridescence, herons perched sentinel along the sand and wind stirring the branches of trees along the bluff. Off to the west was an island I’ve never seen from this perspective: [Read more…]

New Architectural Abstractions: The Scaffold Series

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"Cloud Scaffold" print by Iskra Fine Art
“Cloud Scaffold,” Limited edition print.

Today I am excited to show some new additions to the Scaffold series. At construction sites I am always drawn to the scaffolding around buildings. I am fascinated by their diagrammatic quality, and the way they point to geometric systems in simultaneous plan view and elevation. They layer a grid of abstraction over the landscape of the built environment, with infinite variation. They are both a structure and a space: mostly space, enclosed by tenuous lines that can hold up a fleet of construction workers or a wall or the hull of a ship on shore. They are filigree and lattice, ornament and infrastructure.

"Sari Scaffold" print by Iskra
“Sari Scaffold,” limited edition print

When construction projects are draped in tarps it is like a huge theater project. The

massive fabric becomes an archetype of the feminine, laying an atmosphere of mystery and sensuality over the hard grid. As I worked on “Sari Scaffold” it began to resemble the silk threads of a sari. [Read more…]

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