Aron G. Johnston: Analog Drift Co-curated by Todd Baldwin & Keith Crowley

Aron G. Johnston: Analog Drift Co-curated by Todd Baldwin & Keith Crowley March 6 - March 29, 2015 Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 6 to 10 P.M. PHILADELPHIA, PA- Opening on March 6, 2015, Aron G. Johnston: Analog Drift features a group of paintings and drawings, all made between 2014 and 2015, by New Jersey-based artist, Aron G. Johnson. Every work in the exhibition has its origins in the same analog image, one that has obsessed Johnston for nearly two years: a photograph of a car crash, first published in an Allstate advertisement found in an issue of National Geographic circa 1972-73. Since he first discovered it, Johnston has engaged in a lengthy visual analysis of this photograph, a process he refers to as “image mining.” He has incorporated elements of the picture into works in many different media. His most recent paintings and drawings are the most abstract of the series: here the original photograph has been obliterated. Johnston’s process is laborious and systematic: any one drawing or painting is the result of photo-copying, copying by hand, digitization, cropping, and magnification. In this way, his source material is not only lost; it is also rendered abstract and illegible. Drawn to images that represent the energetic force of physics and the sudden—and repercussive—consequences of a single act, Johnston mines them from their inherent geometry, palette, values, and compositional cues. The resulting works capture the tension, stress, and strain of these violent acts, without representing them outright. Aron G. Johnston has exhibited in California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and his home state of Texas as well as internationally in India, Italy, and Kuwait. He earned his M.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. That same year, he received a Fulbright Research Grant, which he used to study the social effects of globalization on traditional Indian sign painting in southern India. Since 2009, he has been a visiting professor at Moravian College, where he teaches 2D Foundations, Painting, and Drawing as well as hybrid courses on subjects such as mural arts and portraiture. Aron G. Johnston: Analog Drift Co-curated by Todd Baldwin & Keith Crowley March 6 - March 29, 2015 Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 6 to 10 P.M.