260

Femi J. Johnson

(1952-)

Street Angel.

Acrylic on cotton canvas, 2024.
Signed in ink, lower right recto, Signed and dated in ink, verso.
36 1/4 x 36 in. (92.1 x 91.4 cm.), Frame: 36 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (92.7 x 92.7 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    Courtesy of the artist.
    Consigned to support the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.

    Femi J. Johnson was born in Manhattan, New York, and raised in Easton, Pennsylvania. His early talent in graphite and charcoal drawing led to a professional career as a Master Draftsman & Designer for companies in Pennsylvania and New York. After thousands of technical drawings over decades of work, Johnson redirected his creative energy back to the fine arts. He studied in a two-year studio art program at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York, where his engagement with contemporary and modernist art in communion with his Yoruba spirituality inspired his emerging studio practice. In 2012, Johnson returned to the Lehigh Valley, where he currently works out of his studio in downtown Allentown, Pennsylvania. He has exhibited extensively across the region and internationally, with works in corporate and private collections.

    Femi J. Johnson's abstract storyscapes embody a uniquely raw and permissive form of contemporary abstraction. Floating harmonized color, shaped figural elements, and snippets of line drawing all find their position and coalesce as expressions of Johnson's worldview. Familiar places, formal or self-educated beliefs, and personal or media-influenced subjects abstractly saturate his mutable compositions, freeing the viewer to explore interchangeable scenarios. Translating chaos into temporary but believable order on canvas, Johnson's cohesive improvisations exalt the rich connectivity of life.

    Johnson's work is held in the permanent collections of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, Asbury, New Jersey, and the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. In 2016, Johnson was recognized with an Allentown Arts Ovation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Arts. From November 2018 through July 2019, he was named Allentown Art Museum's Artist-in-Residence. He remains actively engaged as a teacher, mentor, and ardent supporter of the arts community. Bio Courtesy of the artist's website.
  • Condition:
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October 7, 2025 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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