Bio

Jake Johnson grew up in Southern California and misses the beach. He dropped out of community college and did weird jobs before realizing that he really loved painting. Johnson moved to Portland, Oregon after realizing that he was not a great painter but wanted to get better and figured that art school was a great way to learn. He studied at Portland State University from 2016 to 2020 and received prestigious art opportunities including being the inaugural recipient of the Catherine Kumlin & Robert Gamblin Endowed Art Practice Study Abroad Scholarship and loaning a painting to PSU that hangs behind the desk of Portland State University's President, Stephen Percy. Johnson was part of the 2019 BFA Art Practice cohort at Portland State University and graduated with an added Art History Minor during the 2020 pandemic remote ceremonies. While at PSU, he also studied and worked in journalism for three years for the student-run weekly newspaper and monthly magazine. This journalism background allowed Johnson to explore explicit and objective communication through journalism and the subtle and subjective communication through art. He lives, works, and watches Bob's Burgers in Portland with his partner and their two cats, Laverne and Shirley. His art has been shown in bars, restaurants, and galleries in and around the city.

Artist Statement

I don't know what exactly painting can do or how my art can be useful, but in my quest to make honest art that I believe in, I hope to be able to communicate and connect with others about the banal, the serious, and the absurd.

My art practice centers around learning and exploration. I want to grow as an artist and person: learning and unlearning what art is and how to approach it, learning and unlearning how society works, and what it means to respect and advocate for the humans and non-humans we share the planet with. During the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter uprising in the middle of the Trump era—which unfortunately doesn’t seem to want to go away—the role of art in our world is in a seemingly endless state of flux. I believe that all art is political; engaging with social and environmental justice or providing an escape from those conversations is an active choice that we as artists need to be aware of—choosing not to engage is okay, but it’s disingenuous to claim that anything isn’t political. Art both mirrors and moves society; I hope that my art can be critical and that I can continue to be critical of myself and my art.

The world is not all doom and gloom: people, animals, plants, and the natural and unnatural worlds we find ourselves growing and connecting in are more often than not mind-bogglingly beautiful. I aim to produce delicious work through beautiful compositions that tell compelling stories.

@JakeJohnsonArt