In honor of 2021’s Black History Month, the LA based Art Angels gallery will be giving Micah his second solo exhibition entitled BLACK SHEEP opening Feb 11th, 2021. For BLACK SHEEP, he uses charcoal extensively and is particularly focused on capturing the gaze of his subjects. In this newest series of paintings, Johnson further expands and hones this style, exploring the effects of scale and perspective. Looking at the double meaning of Read More...
In honor of 2021’s Black History Month, the LA based Art Angels gallery will be giving Micah his second solo exhibition entitled BLACK SHEEP opening Feb 11th, 2021. For BLACK SHEEP, he uses charcoal extensively and is particularly focused on capturing the gaze of his subjects. In this newest series of paintings, Johnson further expands and hones this style, exploring the effects of scale and perspective. Looking at the double meaning of “perspective,” Johnson creates stylized angles on his subjects, hoping to prompt a revamping of viewers’ perceptions -- of them, themselves, the art, and the world. Introducing exaggerated angles and close-up intimacy in his portraits, Johnson guides the gaze throughout the work, presenting his subjects’ monumental, emotional, confident visages in ways both ambiguous and familiar, intended to lead the viewer through their young dreams, and ultimately, back to their own.
These stirring portraits, intended to evoke an emotional narrative through the intimacy of portraiture and as an expression of the black sheep / outcast theme, combine Micah’s expressive, exuberant palette and empathetic, evocative style. Each portrait is anchored by a perfectly rendered eye, set like a jewel amid the chromatic swirl of their complex humanity. As a graduation of Johnson’s earlier dream-focused works, each BLACK SHEEP portrait is raw, visceral and emboldened reflection of the emotional state Johnson was in when making the piece.
