Larry Johnson (artist)

Larry Johnson (born July 25, 1959) is an American artist living and working in Los Angeles.

Johnson’s photographic works belong to the output of the Pictures Generation, utilizing photographic techniques, cryptographic systems and his own encyclopedic memory to create multi-entendre layers of image and text. Johnson’s humorous and often cutting commentaries on his own culture’s exported ideologies have made him one of the foremost artists of his generation.

Early life and career
Larry Johnson was raised in the Middle American town of Lakewood. He was born on July 25, 1959, to his father, a AAA baseball player, and his mother, a homemaker. Johnson began studying at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1978 and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He stayed with the school and went on to receive a Masters of Fine Arts in 1984.

While studying at CalArts Johnson mentored under the Conceptual artist Douglas Huebler and worked alongside fellow students Stephen Prina and Christopher Williams. Johnson is both heir to an education received at CalArts and to the “camp” cultural practice of Kenneth Anger’s films and bestsellers Hollywood Babylon. During this time he also met Richard Prince, who visited the institute in 1984. Johnson cites Prince as an early influence on his work and credits the meeting as leading to his inclusion in his first New York exhibition, the 1987 "Perverted by Language" curated by Robert Nickas.

Teaching
Johnson has taught as a professor in Los Angeles art colleges and universities for over thirty years, during which time he also served as the chair of the Otis College of Art and Design's department of Photography. He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer at Otis as well as an occasional guest lecturer at ArtCenter.

Work and techniques
A quintessentially Los Angeles artist, Johnson's work investigates the inherent contradictions between the gleaming surface and underlying cynical logics of American culture. His works often reference the idiosyncratic languages of animation, graphic and commercial design, pornography and advertising. Johnson was trained in pre-digital commercial graphic design production and often foregrounds techniques such as the paste-up, commonly used to prepare “camera ready” material for print.

Personal life
Larry Johnson is an Los Angeles art world cult figure. A confirmed bachelor, he is famously elusive (has no car, no phone, and uses a Hotmail email address). Johnson has been quoted as saying "In a city of stars, bars and cars, I'm a fan who never drives".

Selected solo exhibitions

 * 2016: MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
 * 2015: On Location, Raven Row, London, UK
 * 2009: Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Selected exhibitions with others

 * 2020: Made in LA: a version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA
 * 2019: Larry Johnson & Asha Schechter, Jenny's, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2009: MOCA's First Thirty Years, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2004:  Forest of Signs, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
 * 1991: Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
 * 1989: California Photography: Remaking Make-Believe, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
 * 1988: XLIII Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
 * 1987: On View, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
 * 1987: Documenta 8, Kassel, Germany

Public and museum collections

 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
 * Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
 * Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
 * Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
 * Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
 * MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
 * Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
 * Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
 * Whitney Museum, New York, NY

Books

 * Larry Johnson: Commie Pinko Guy Edited by Bruce Hainley. Texts by Morgan Fisher, Bruce Hainley, Antony Hudek, Larry Johnson, Wayne Koestenbaum, Lisa Lapinski, Pleasant Gehman, James McCourt, Boyd McDonald, Duncan Smith, Koenig Books, 2015
 * Larry Johnson (Monograph) Essays by Russell Ferguson, Lee Edelman, and Esther Leslie, and an interview with the artist by David Rimanelli. Hammer Publications, 2007
 * Larry Johnson Edited by Sherri Schottlaender. Texts by Scott Watson, Laurence A. Rickels and Gary Indiana. Published by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1996