In 2000, Gary Johns turned away from a highly successful career as an international award-winning commercial film director and devoted himself to his family and to his dream of making art without the constraints of commercialism.
Johns characterizes himself as an observer and recorder of the world in which he lives. His artwork reflects his interest in the decay that surrounds all of us. Johns finds beauty in graphically photographing things that most people tend to overlook. These images, together with elements from his own paintings, drawings, scribblings, and detritus found on the street are juxtaposed in mixed media collages.
Johns’ work has been exhibited at various galleries in Los Angeles and the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Most recently his work has been exhibited at the Holmann Gallery in Palm Desert, California and St. Petri in Lübeck, Germany.
Johns resides in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles for six months of the year. For the months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, he resides in Chautauqua County, New York.
Artist statement
"It often begins with a scrap of discarded paper. A colorful snippet saved from the floor of my studio. Or found on the street among the detritus of urban decay. Sometimes it begins with a photograph of something I find compelling. Even an inconsequential scrap from a 50-year-old Peruvian newspaper can serve as the impetus for a collage.
When I place this remnant on another piece of paper, the “conservation” begins; a dialogue between my subconscious and conscious mind, and the elements at hand. I normally do not think about the outcome. I let the conversation unfold and take me to a conclusion: logical, illogical, or indifferent."