Nicholas Johnson (b. 1982, Honolulu, Hawaii) is a London-based artist. He uses painting to reflect on his birthplace, which reveals itself in the intense hues and tropical – often invented – botanies. The unnatural colouration and regimented arrangements of his plants point at models of order and chaos in the natural world that lie outside the ordinary boundaries of perception. His paintings are renderings of his research on – and long fascination with – the subject of plant consciousness, interspecies communication and ancient technologies of perceptual and cognitive augmentation. These paintings are underpinned by an idiosyncratic academicism, most often recorded in encyclopaedic texts and catalogues that accompany exhibitions of his work.

His work has been covered by Artsy, Elephant Magazine, Nero, Studio International, Apollo Magazine, Dazed, Harper’s Bazaar, The Financial Times, The Times. Johnson lives and works in London.

Selected Exhibitions

Proof of Work; What’s at Stake?, Plus One, Antwerp, Belgium (2022); RAPTURE, Peter von Kant, London (2022); They Regard Us As We Regard Them, Plus One, Antwerp, Belgium (2021), Walker Art Museum, Liverpool; Flat Time House, London; Art Brussels, Belgium ; Plus-one, Antwerp; Montoro 12 Contemporary, Rome; The Averard Hotel, Slate Projects/Averard Hotel, London; Peter von Kant, London; The Catlin Prize, London/Newcastle Project Space, London; The Edit, Dubai; Artvisor, London; Podium, Oslo and House of Egorn, London.

Interested in Nicholas Johnson’s work?