JOHNNIE WINONA ROSS: BEAN CREEK SEEPS Septemer 9 - October 9, 2022
Johnnie Winona Ross
.
-Michaela Kahn
What happens to the people inside the tent? To the space around? Suddenly the space is filled. There are dimensions to the air, there is a cadence to the breeze. Suddenly the sunlight has a shape, the cold has a color, the saxophone loops over heads, the piano rolls out across the grass. Everything has dimension, form, the quality of being shivering through itself. Everything is connected in a puzzle-box shaped place created by the music.
There is something that happens to space when music is played. Imagine an outdoor tent – open to let the late sunlight slant in, end of summer, warmth of the day seeping into the grass, cool air coming down from the mountains. A few people remain in the rows of seating and as the crew begin to clear up from the day’s events, someone puts Kind of Blue on the stereo.
There is a magic in the way that a jazz song can hold open and electrify a space. There is a similar magic in how Johnnie Winona Ross opens up a space with his paintings. Created with a quiet care and attention to detail, what goes into the physical building of these paintings is as important to Ross as the images they convey. Using handmade copper tacks to stretch his specially textured linen canvas over basswood stretcher bars, these sensual details – always visible at the edges of the painting – form a kind of anchor for the viewer. While these breathing, complex, white and color-woven paintings open up an almost three-dimensional space, create a similar sort of multidimensional, multisensory, and potentially even synesthetic experience as music can – their job is not to take you somewhere else, you are not supposed to forget that this is a painting on a wall –their job is to bring you right here. To the space and time of now. Into your body, into the gallery, into the experience of being present with a particular piece of art, in a particular moment, and a particular kind of light.
This is a meditative experience. Sanctuary. And it takes a long time to get here. Ross can take years layering and sanding down and then re-layering his pieces – the white bands interwoven with the dripped colors that form their complex runnels through and behind the white. More than anything, these paintings suggest the landscape that inspires them: the mineral-layered mesas of the Southwest, with their mysterious and sacred seeps, where water can suddenly rise up or push through layers of earth, bringing life, changing and charging the desert air with the smell of light and water. With their hundreds of layers of deposited mineral pigment – they are almost geological in their creation. This shows through in their quiet. Their mysterious depths. In the feeling as one stands with one of the paintings, that it has a relationship to something very old and very solid.
Bean Creek Seeps presents the viewer with an opportunity to take a journey. An experience that walks a line between the best elements of a hike, a museum visit, and a meditation practice. Within these softly glowing paintings, one might find the space to breathe, listen, to see what is there
Bear’s Ears Seep (BES 02), September 2020, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 48 x 46 inches
Moss Back Seeps 01, September 2021, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 36 x 34.25 inches
Bean Creek Seep 02, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 36 x 34.25 inches
Bean Creek Spring, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 60 x 57 inches
Moss Back Seep 03, November 2021, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 60 x 57 inches
Bean Creek Seep, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 60 x 57 inches
Bean Creek Seeps 03, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 36 x 34.25 inches
Hail Creek Seep, 2016-2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 48 x 46 inches
Bean Creek Spring 04, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 24 x 22.5 inches
Bean Creek Spring 03, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 24 x 22.5 inches
Bean Creek Spring 02, 2022, mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen, 36 x 34.25 inches
Bean Creek Seep 02, 2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 36 x 34.25 in.
$35,000
Bean Creek Seep, 2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 60 x 57
ClickJWR050in.toinquire about this work
Bean Creek Spring, 2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 60 x 57
ClickJWR048in.toinquire about this work
Bear’s Ears Seep (BES 02), September 2020 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 48 x 46
ClickJWR038in.toinquire about this work
ClickJWR051in.toinquire about this work
ClickJWR054to inquire about this work
Moss Back Seeps 01, September 2021 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 36 x 34.25 in.
Moss Back Seeps 03, November 2021 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 60 x 57
$45,000
$28,000
$45,000
ClickJWR046to inquire about this work
$45,000
$28,000
Bean Creek Spring 04, 2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 24 x 22.5 in.
ClickJWR053to inquire about this work
Bean Creek Seeps 03, 2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 36 x 34.25 in.
Hail Creek Seep, 2016-2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 48 x 46
ClickJWR055to inquire about this work
$35,000
$28,000
ClickJWR052in.toinquire about this work
$28,000
$20,000
ClickJWR056to inquire about this work
Bean Creek Spring 03, 2022 mineral pigments burnished on stretched linen 24 x 22.5 in.
ClickJWR057to inquire about this work
Bean Creek Spring 02, 2022 mineral pigment burnished on stretched linen 36 x 34.25 in.
$20,000
2016 True To Form: A Group Show, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1971 BFA, Washington University
2000 Artist-Residence, Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA
30th Anniversary Exhibition, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA; exhibition catalog
Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Education:
1975 Roswell Artist-in-Residence, Roswell, NM
1973 MFA, University of Illinois
Recent Solo Exhibitions:
2008 James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
Deep Creek Seeps, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas
1990 Artist-Residence, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris France
1995 Roswell Artist-in-Residence, Roswell, NM
2006 Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA (catalogue)
2017 RAiR@50, Roswell Museum of Art, Roswell, NM
Traces: Johnnie Winona Ross, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Treasure Hunt, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Residencies:
The Last Picture Show, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2014 Finn, again!, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Johnnie Winona Ross: S E E P line, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2020 Follow the Line, Tia Collection & Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2018 Johnnie Winona Ross: S E E P line, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
1989 Fulbright Artist-in-Residence, (nominated) Yugoslavia
Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, TX
2021 Gratitude, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Painted Landscapes: Contemporary Views, Heritage Museums and Gardens, Sandwich, MA
2011 Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Johnnie Winona Ross: Traces, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Continuum: Art-As-Art, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
2001 International Individual Support Grant, Gottlieb Foundation
2003 Artist-Residence, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
2010 Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Great & Small, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Johnnie Winona Ross: S E E P, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Artist-Residence, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
2007 Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY (monograph available)
Johnnie Winona Ross, Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
2019 Summer Group, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2015 Group Matrix, Stux + Haller, New York, NY
2022 Johnnie Winona Ross: Bean Creek Seeps, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005 Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Celebrating Thirty Years, Part 2, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA Roswell Museum of Art, Roswell, NM Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, NM Greenburger Collection, New York, NY Fidelity Investments Collection Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Tia Collection
2013 Essence/Quintessence, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY Geometry of Longing, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY The Art of Renewal, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Spectrum, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Beyond the Gift of Time, Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, NM Living with Art, 47 Modern Masters from the Chris Burmeister Collection, Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
ART20 2007, The Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY f&c/r&r, Foley and Cox, New York, NY
2010 New Arrivals: Works from the Collection, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM Nexus, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Cumulous Skies: The Enduring Modernist Aesthetic in NM, Santa Fe Arts Council, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Home Away from Home, Vanderbilt Hall, New York, NY New Editions from Tamarind Institute, Addison Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2006 ART20 2006, The Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY Site Unseen 4, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Confluence, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
15th Anniversary Show, Parks Gallery; Taos
Contemporary Collaborations, Portland Museum of Art; Portland, Maine Barry Whistler Gallery; Dallas, TX
2007 Prints from the Permanent Collection, 1968 – Present, The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO Creation, Education, and Collaboration, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM Pulse London, London, UK
2011 Connections, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, TX
New Acquisitions, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM Continuum, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY William Shearburn Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2009 Landscape as Grid (two person show), Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY In Context, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do, Jeonbuk, Korea Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
2012 Concurrence, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
2005 2005 World Calligraphy Biennale of Jeollabuk-do, Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do, Jeonbuk, Korea Focal Point, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Digital Art: 2006 - Prints Video Audio, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, NM White II, Howard Scott Gallery, New York, NY Compendium, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Important Work from the Permanent Collection, Harwood Museum, Taos, New Mexico
Selected Collections:
CHARLOTTE JACKSON FINE ART Celebrating 33 years 554 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | Tel 505.989.8688 | www.charlottejackson.com ©Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Inc.
