Alexander Johnson

Artist statement

1963: Chichester, West Sussex.
1980-82: Foundation, West Sussex College of Design.
1982-85: BA (Hons) Fine Art, South Glamorgan IHE Cardiff.

I was born in Chichester in the shadow of the South Downs. I had an early interest in making pictures, which developed into the desire to become an artist when I saw a powerful Picasso sculpture in France at the age of 12. At school I made posters for punk bands to promote local gigs, taking my inspiration from the groundbreaking new graphic styles at the time. I studied art for two years at foundation level at West Sussex College of Design, going on to complete a degree in Fine Art at Cardiff Art College. I have spent periods of my life living and exhibiting in Barcelona and Holland and now work in Hove, East Sussex.

My work is primarily concerned with memory and place; I take information which is in danger of being forgotten and recycle it for a new audience. This process first began when I worked from reconnaissance photos taken by my father in WW2 over Europe and North Africa. I used the greys of the original monochrome photographs coruscated with areas of bright colour from my own reference points. The images I am making now have developed from the reconnaissance work and can still have a map-like quality. The work was figurative for a long time before moving into abstraction and contains the memory of those years, images resonate with the figurative world but in a less obvious way.

The genesis of a piece may be from one of my old sketchbooks, or from memories related to places in my past. Sometimes I have visual memories of incidents which I try to capture in paint and colour can trigger a memory for me just as easily as the smell of cut grass, so getting the colour exactly right takes up a lot of my time. I am aiming for work that has an initial impact, but also a quieter sonority which slowly grows as you spend time with the piece. It is only by spending time with a completed piece that I know whether it will survive - I destroy as much work as I make.