Dennis Johnson

Chicago has a rich history of iconic landmarks and views, but the seemingly ordinary environments, urban spaces and details are the real guts of this city. Full of imagery worth highlighting, there are areas in the city that can contain multiple layers of history; from a large factory building or mass transit structure, to a small tavern in Logan Square. Much of my work focuses on these city structures and environments found in Chicago. Some of these views or buildings will often change, while some have stayed the same for decades. To inspire me, I take photographs of these places and then use them to develop ideas and render compositions. There are different surfaces or methods of application I use on my paintings; from smooth and matte surfaces, to rough and thick textured surfaces. I might also use metallic paint in different areas of the paintings that create a nice contrast between the matte surface and the metallic surface, or combined in some with a gloss surface. Some pieces have multiple canvas frames attached together in a modular way to create one large, or small, single piece of work.