“The show is about how I am 39 years old and how all this time went into making right now. The pictures in the show start at age 24 and go to age 39 at 6pm on March 8th, 2008. It is about human communication dealing with dealing through paint. It is about personal mind control as a coping mechanism to be better at co-existence. About language to communicate in order to know of serenity. It is about cancer, death. Life. Serenity. Life. Order. Chaos. Recycle. Health food. Life. Bright colors not to draw an insect to a flame to be harmed but show possibility. Its about unfinished business and the inability to do everything. All things. Endless choices. Serenity there. Animal, plant, insect. The main reason I had to do this is this is my daily ritual to make pictures is to contemplate life and death, world and place is part of my religion. It is true. I believe. Sooner or later both ways all the time.” — Chris Johanson
Chris Johanson was born in 1968 in San Jose, California, and currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. His work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the U.S. and Europe, including recent shows at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, and Galerie Georg Kargl in Vienna, Austria. In 2002, Johanson’s work was included in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and in 2003 he received a SECA award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.