All posts in painting

Art & Ecology Prize, Malcolm Smith Gallery

Downfall Street Poster Project, 2013

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I’m looking forward to seeing the Colin McCahon exhibitions this #McCahon100 centenary year, including his Gate III mural opening at my local @te_uru_gallery later this month. I’ve loved McCahon's art for as long as I can remember. Back in 2012, while living in Titirangi near @mccahonhouse, where he lived and painted during the 1950s, I painted Downfall (swipe to last image), which in part paid homage to McCahon’s Waterfall series. Expanding on that painting, for my 2013 Downfall Street Poster Project, I printed street posters of the painting and had them pasted-up in various configurations at many locations around central Auckland, at Phantom Billstickers sites. The images shown here are just a few of those sites. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #colinmccahon #painting #nzart #nzartist #contemporaryart #streetart #johnjohnston #jjprojects #art #artwork #artist #aotearoa

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Tāmaki River (detail), Estuary Art & Ecology Prize

Tāmaki River, Estuary Art & Ecology Prize

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This is my new painting Tāmaki River / Te Wai o Taiki, which is currently showing in the (Tāmaki) Estuary Art & Ecology Prize exhibition, on until 1 September at Malcolm Smith Gallery, Uxbridge Arts & Culture hub (@uxbridgeartsc). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I made the painting using plastic waste found in and near the Tāmaki Estuary and other Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland waterways. The mosaic-like feature is closely based on the form of the Tāmaki River, from the narrow inland creeks out to the ocean. The painting’s grey ground represents the surrounding land, and also resembles the concrete of our urban environment. I made the painting as a visually festive celebration of the reuse of plastic waste, but also as a reminder of the need to continue to eliminate plastic pollution from waterways. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Tāmaki River / Te Wai o Taiki, 2019 Repurposed plastic waste, acrylic and sawdust on canvas 600 mm x 1200 mm ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #painting #ecoart #leavenotrace #plasticfreejuly #plasticfree #artgram #artstagram #art #artwork #estuary #river #tamakiriver #tamakiestuary #contemporaryart #jjprojects #johnjohnston

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Oil Age, Climate Change Exhibition, EcoWest Festival

Signature Cluster, 2018

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Running in parallel with my current repurposed plastic work, this painting is part of a long-running body of work employing that oft-lauded mark of artistic authenticity and branding, the artist’s signature. At the same time, this particular work takes its form in an age-old medium and resembles abstract expressionism. As the title suggests, Signature Cluster was made by drawing my illegible signature multiple times in a cluster. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Signature Cluster, 2018 Acrylic and oil stick on canvas 900mm x 900mm ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #jjprojects #johnjohnston #painting #drawing #contemporaryart #contemporaryartist #artist #artgram #artstagram #artistsoninstagram #art #artwork

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Signature Cluster (Black & White), 2017

Five Eyes Painting in Westminster Papers Article

Article link: Visibility, Power and Citizen Intervention: The Five Eyes and New Zealand’s Southern Cross Cable

Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture Article

Article link: Visibility, Power and Citizen Intervention: The Five Eyes and New Zealand’s Southern Cross Cable

Work In Progress – Video