Kylin Gallery is pleased to present The Geometry of Colour, an exhibition of selected work by Los Angeles-based artist Stephen Robert Johns. Fifteen works selected for the exhibition span from 1972 to 2017, on view May 1 through May 29, 2021. The online exhibition will be available concurrent with the physical show. 

 

Stephen’s work in this exhibition spans his oeuvre from his beginnings in Los Angeles to the present day. The exhibition is framed by two important sets of works: the first part, after he graduated from Cal Arts / Chouinard Art Institute, comprised of his forays into pure color and static geometry, "I wanted to engage the public with my painting, with large canvases, geometric compositions, and with my interpretation of the Color Wheel, developed by Johannes Itten of the German Bau Haus movement," says Johns. 

 

And the second, a series of aerial land views, exploring color-field and movement. Aerial views of agriculture provided the topographical subject matter, and irregular geometric patterns integrated within the natural land formations. During the following years traveling to the Mid West, East Coast, Japan & Costa Rica, his interest in capturing the imagery below continued, with a series of drawings becoming models for present & future paintings. 

These paintings frame Stephen’s nearly fifty-year-long, constantly evolving journey into abstract painting, from frenetic, highly energetic works evocative of movement and dance, to formalist studies of the illusionistic and kinetic potential of geometric abstraction. 

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Stephen R. Johns (b.1948, Los Angeles; lives and works in Santa Monica and Costa Rica). Stephen studied at Chouinard Art Institute 1967-1970 and Cal Arts 1970-1972. For the past 20 years, Johns has been returning to his studio in Costa Rica each year, inspired by the culture, the landscape and the people, to create his art. His work has been widely collected by clients such as USC, AT&T Los Angeles, Art Front Gallery Tokyo, ARCO Towers Los Angeles, Security Pacific Bank Los Angeles, Hyatt Regency New Orleans and Hotel Monaco Washington DC and many more.