Chris Johanson on troublemaking, community and vicissitudes.

Chris Johanson talks about being a troublemaker at a young age and his need to be active at all times. He finds painting to be meditative and enjoys the process. The artist is used to 16-hour-days working on sculptures out of material he found in dumpsters before an exhibition, which is why according to him, his exhibition “Paintings” (2019) at Galleri Nicolai Wallner is different from his usual approach.

Community and the vicissitudes of life play an important role in Chris Johanson’s work. He is known for a style of painting embracing the situations, emotions and people in his surroundings. Using painting as a tool to be able to understand and contextualising his own position within the world, this means of knowing is thus passed on to us, through the work, allowing us to see it through our own eyes and our own experiences. Focusing on the urban realities and identities, he talks about the community in San Francisco in the 1990s as well as San Francisco today in his interview.

Filmed and edited by Andreas Rosforth.