Gravedigger

Johnson’s art manifests through a harnessed combination of chance and design — a splash of paint, poured haphazardly direct from a tin to the translucent stretched plastic canvas, becomes a vivid and carnivalesque writhing of forms through a series of delicate, figure-finding embellishments. “Gravedigger”s lively drama of sex, violence and death combines with the strong palette to suggest some Día de Muertos revelation and ceremony. The chromatic aberrations in the cloudy fields of colour come from the unlikely source of paint — collected over time from the artist’s brushes as they’re washed after use, then left to sit and split into separately oxidising layers.