Worry - A Conversation with Elizabeth Johnson

Lehigh Valley Arts Podcast

This week, Ben sits down with artist and curator Elizabeth Johnson.

An artist and exhibition curator, Elizabeth Johnson began writing reviews for
artpractical.com in San Francisco, California, and later covered exhibitions in New York City, Philadelphia, and the Lehigh Valley for theartblog.org. She has written for artcritical.com, Artvoices Magazine, Figure/Ground.org, The Brooklyn Rail, and DeliciousLine.org. Currently she interviews artists for Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia gallerists for theartblog.org. She curated The Big Painting Show at Workspace Limited in San Francisco’s Mission District and has since curated shows that mix local and visiting artists at Lafayette College, Cedar Crest College, Brick + Mortar Gallery and the Soft Machine Gallery, all in the Lehigh Valley. She co-curated Pathological Landscape for Marquee Projects in Bellport, New York, and Residential Tourist for Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia. Solo shows have been held at Café Museo, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); Canada College, Redwood City, California; Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture SFMOMA Artists Gallery; and, in 2019, Cedar Crest College. After receiving a BA in Fine Arts from Bard College in 1986, she lived in San Francisco, California for 25 years. She moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, in 2011. She makes oil paintings that suggest dimensional space using curved and warped images. You can follow her on Instagram @elizjohnson2018 or check out her website at https://www.elizabethjohnsonart.com/

The show WORRY features twenty-two artists from Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley, New Jersey, and New York in the hope of soothing shared political and cultural anxieties by revisiting classical drama. Loosely modeled on Penelope, Odysseus, and Athena from Homer’s Odyssey, WORRY compares Penelope’s suitors to a throng of stubborn anxieties, which might be mitigated through artmaking rather than annihilation. Emphasizing Athena’s association with protection, handicraft, and wisdom but not war, WORRY identifies Odysseus not as military hero but in terms of the joy of wandering and distraction. WORRY is a show at Soft Machine Gallery in Allentown, PA.

WORRY artists include: Rocío Cabello, Matthew Crain, Eva Di Orio, Morgan Hobbs, William Hudders, Duwenavue Santé Johnson, Elizabeth Johnson, Frederick Wright Jones, Elizabeth Keithline, Tom McGlynn, Renny Molenaar, John Mortensen, Jill Odegaard, Joseph O’Neal, Bethann Parker, Celia Reisman, Paul Rider, Anthony Smith Jr., Emily Steinberg, Charles Stonewall, Bruce Wall, and Tenesh Webber

WORRY will be having a closing reception on Saturday, July 1 at 2 pm for a brief Artists Talk and music by Francine Roussel (vocals) and Patrick Paladin (piano) who will present a repertoire of popular songs, in the original French, with a jazz approach.

Soft Machine Gallery is a contemporary art space/performance venue in blossoming Allentown featuring local/national artists & performers.
It is located at 105 Ridge Ave, Allentown, PA 18101. For more information about them, follow them on Instagram at @soft_machine_gallery.