User:Alexart63/sandbox

Alexander Johnson (born 1963 in Chichester, UK) is a visual artist based in South East UK. He studied at West Sussex College of Design and later at South Glamorgan I.H.E gaining an honours degree in Fine Art. His early years as an artist were spent in London and work consisted mainly of silkscreen printing. Later after a period in the 1990's living in Barcelona, Spain and Nijmegen Holland, he returned to the UK where he now lives and began working in oils.

His work is mainly concerned with themes relating to the Second World War and conflict archeology. His father, Flight Lt Don Johnson (RAF / PRU) was a reconnaissance Spitfire Pilot who took photographs for the aerial intelligence service during the conflict in 1942/3. From these photographs Alexander extracted information and developed it into abstracted linear images, the resulting collection of 17 silkscreen prints was titled 'Reconnaissance' and was exhibited at 35 North Contemporary Gallery, Brighton UK and the Atom Gallery, London UK. A published hardback book of the reconnaissance series is available (Reconnaissance, ISBN: 978-13-38-889586-0).

More recently Johnson has been artist in residence at the ex-WW2 Deanland Airfield in Ripe, East Sussex. The resulting 'Deanland Project' was documented by photographer John Brockliss in a book 'Deanland' (with a foreword by Antony Penrose) and was published in June 2018; (ISBN: 978-1-38-88915-2). The Deanland work comprising, painting, drawings, silkscreens and etchings was exhibited at Farley Farmhouse Gallery, with photographs of the work in progress by John Brockliss, curated by Antony Penrose in April 2019. www.bbc.co.uk/news Deanland: Portrait of an Airfield, a short film by Antony Penrose, 2019]

Following on from these two projects Johnson spent time in Guernica in Northern Spain and continues to develop work exploring the aftermath of the fascist bombing by Franco's allies in 1937. Using images from war reportage taken after the bombing, combined with contemporary sketches made by the artist today, he is working on a series of large oil paintings that reflect on the recent history since the bombing.